Sonate per Gravicembalo (London 1739)

According to scholars, Giovanni Battista’s harpsichord work would turn out to be the most valuable, especially from the point of view of stylistic innovation.
In addition to six Sonatas for Harpsichord still preserved in manuscript form, the Sonatas for Gravicembalo, published in London in 1739, which are the subject of this recording, have come down to the present day.
These are compositions that can be placed in the transitional area between Baroque and Galante styles, generally conceived in varying numbers of movements that, with their contrasting character, range from two to four. Among the salient traits that happily distinguish Pescetti’s music, we can certainly emphasize clarity of exposition, elegance, essentiality, short-range but incisive inspiration, as well as uncommon spontaneity and fluidity of language.
These Sonatas for Gravicembalo represent, therefore, a shining example of eighteenth-century Italian Music, under the significant aspect of art understood as a moment of communication of sounds, images, sensations and feelings.
Pescetti’s music requires a type of harpsichord with a full and dark sound color, with notes that have a long hold but also a defined and penetrating attack. An excellent historical two-manual instrument was used for this recording, a copy of Pascal Taskin (Paris 1769), the original of which is kept at the prestigious Russell Collection in Edinburgh.