MUSICWEB:
This is a fascinating disc and the beginning of a very important project in which Peter Seivewright is to record all 90 of Galuppi's keyboard sonatas and endeavour to publish them so that we can perform them too.

What makes this project so important is that it is a pioneering undertaking. There is no performing tradition in Galuppi sonatas as there is in say Scarlatti or Bach. Mr Seivewright has to establish a performing tradition in effect. He has already conducted detailed research in Venice and has been shocked at comparing manuscripts of the sonatas and unearthed endless copyist errors. It is clear that his dedication to this task is similar to Ralph Kirkpatrick's commitment to the Scarlatti sonatas.

The Galuppi manuscripts do not give clear indications as to tempo, dynamics, ornamentation and character. As you will see the sonatas are not numbered and on this disc you have two in A minor and two in C minor. The work of cataloguing and editing will take some time.

Some of the sonatas have a baroque feel while others approach early Beethoven as you might expect from Galuppi's time (1706 - 1785). His music is very tuneful, unpretentious and untrammelled by 'early music fussiness'. They are far more appealing than Scarlatti sonatas.

I have to commend the recording engineer on this disc, Douglas Doherty who produces a close, intimate and crisp sound.

As to the sonatas ....

Sonata in A minor

Here Peter Seivewright gives us a splendid example as to how to play cantabile which all students and fellow pianists would do well to emulate. The opening movement is tuneful and coherent, expertly realised with colour and a very sensitive performance. The tempo is expertly judged. The allegro vivace is an engaging movement with welcome contrasts and displays clear and reliable finger work.

Sonata in C minor

The expressive cantabile is again present in adagio molto. There is some exquisite imitation. And the darkness of C minor that one usually associates with Mozart and Beethoven is here. It is often very beautiful. The allegro has clear form and, again, is very tuneful. The choice of ornamentation is excellent and adds to, rather than distorts the sheer melodic joy.

Sonata in B flat

This begins with a long andantino movement full of melodic invention and played with superb sensitivity. Even scales sound fresh and original. The allegro is playful.

Sonata in C minor

This is a three movement work. A descending arpeggio figure is one of its many features. The allegro is both captivating and contagious and, yet again, there is a melody that sounds 'mountain fresh'. The final allegro assai seems to stutter a little.

Sonata in A

The andante is a good piece and improves with further listening. It takes an exceptional composer to so cleverly develop what appears to be scant material. There is a final allegro.

Sonata in G minor

The substantial opening largo is a fascinating inner quest by the composer. The allegro energico is fugal in character and makes compelling listening. The final allegretto grazioso has a courtly but not affected elegance and the performance is infused with a splendid variety of tone and colour.

Sonata in E

This is an allegro followed by variations, and splendid they are. Again the performance is one of reliable finger work and great sensitivity.

Sonata in F

A long slow movement begins with tremendous beauty and develops into exciting energy. The thoughtful finale may surprise a few listeners. The 'sleeve booklet' gives an excellent introduction to the life and times of this gifted composers and whets our appetite for further helpings.
Highly recommended  - Performances **** - Recording ****
David Wright

YORKSHIRE POST:
“A revelatory disc…Galuppi’s invention is rich and fresh, and Seivewright plays these wonderful pieces with a sense of delight in discovery. Highly recommended.”

Performance ***** - Recording *****
Robert Cockroft

FANFARE:
Here's a project that better-known pianists and bigger companies will be knocking themselves for not having thought of first, for this is the first volume of what will be 10, containing all 90 keyboard sonatas of Baldassare Galuppi (1706-85) Here we have eight, in A Minor, C Minor (two), B I Major, A Major, G Minor, E Major, and F Major. Galuppi, of course, we all know from Browning's poem, “A Toccata of Galuppi's", proof if we needed it, that Galuppi's was at one point a name that Browning could be sure his readers would recognize. Indeed, pianist Peter Seivewright's notes with his disc talks of Galuppi's "fall from stellar celebrity to almost total obscurity today”.
Seivewright's extended essay (billed, intriguingly, as "part one") gives a learned summary of his achievements and the principal stylistic characteristics or his music, which is anchored in the Baroque but, as Seivewright puts it, "looks forward not only to the Classical period but also on to the early Romantics, such as Weber, Schumann, and Mendelssohn”. It doesn't have the sheer verve and varied panache or the keyboard music of Domenico Scarlatti, 21 years his elder, but it can more than hold its own against that of Antonio Soler, who was nine years younger but essentially a more conservative composer than Galuppi. There is an enormous amount to enjoy on this disc, from calm elegance to finger-stretching display, and Seivewright's projected integrale might well do us all the service of reminding other players that here is a composer whose return to the concert platform could brighten up a good many recitals.

You may have come across thc playing of the English-born, Scottish-based Peter Seivewright through his two Naxos CDs of the Nielsen piano music, though he has also recorded with the Danish label Rondo; and I am pleased to see that he has plans to record, also for Divine Art, the piano music of the neglected northern English composer William Gillies Whittaker - that will be well worth looking forward to. In the meantime he proves a reliable guide to Galuppi's measured spirit. One might have hoped for a little more agility in the trills and turns, but at this stage one's attitude, as Tom Lehrer sings, should be one of gratitude, for Seivewright's endeavor is an important one and deserves every success. The recorded sound, barely marred by a tiny editing glitch, gives the piano (unidentified, but dating, I guess, from some time in the second half of the 19th century) quite a bit of space, but not so much that it is set at a distance from the listener.

A CD can often be distinguished not only by the quality of the music it presents but also by felicitous touches in the presentation. Here it's in the lace-art designs on the front and back of the booklet by Lucia Constantini, working on the Venetian island of Burano, where Galuppi was born - a lovely little kiss with which to send this disc on its way in the world. Warmly recommended.
Martin Anderson

FRMS BULLETIN:
Galuppi (nicknamed "Il Buranello" after the island in Venice where he was born) was in his lifetime a well known and very successful musician who also became extremely rich. He is referred to in the famous "Memoires" of Giacomo Casanova. His name was immortalised in the notable poem by Robert Browning named "Toccata of Galuppi's". In his lifetime he was most famous for his operas; he was invited to London in 1741 to write operas for the King's Theatre in London, his operas were successful throughout Europe. Besides opera he wrote oratorios and church music and much instrumental music. Most of Galuppi's keyboard sonatas were written in the last few years of his life and are mostly unpublished. He wrote 90 Piano Sonatas and the precise dating of them is an impossible task. The two discs here are the first two of a planned 10 disc set of all the sonatas. There are eight sonatas on disc 1 and nine on disc 2. Most are of two movements but some have three movements. All are of versions prepared by Peter Seivewright from the original manuscripts.

It seems clear that Galuppi wrote most of these sonatas for the pianoforte (which was just coming into use at the time). On these discs they are played on a Steinway Model D piano, but given a very close recording so as to try to capture the more restricted sound of the 18th century instrument.

What about the music itself? I found it both interesting and tuneful. Many of the sonatas remind me of the style of C P E Bach (whom Galuppi had met in 1765), but several of the sonatas look forward to the music of Mendelssohn and Schumann and it is clear that here we have a composer of original and formidable talent. This music is unknown but certainly deserves hearing.

Peter Seivewright (who has recorded piano music of Carl Nielsen and of contemporary Scottish composers) plays with a caressing style which reminds me of Glenn Gould (a pianist whom I admire). He is also clearly a scholar and musical historian of merit as the essays provided by him in the record booklets demonstrate. The notes in Volume 1 are about "Galuppi's life and times" whereas that in volume 2 is a historical and philosophical discussion of "Galuppi, the counter-enlightenment and the Roman Catholic Church" - a fascinating study.

The CDs are well presented and with excellent notes as indicated in the last paragraph. The one thing that is lacking are notes about the individual pieces. I enjoyed these two volumes and can recommend them to anyone looking for piano music away from the beaten track.
Arthur Baker

PENGUIN GUIDE TO COMPACT DISCS:

Galuppi’s keyboard music was brought to the notice of record collectors by a C major Sonata included by Michelangeli in a Decca mono LP recital, and he turned it into a little pearl. Galuppi was also celebrated by Browning, but alas the “Toccata” his poem describes does not actually exist. However, some 90 sonatas do, and they are all being recorded by Peter Seivewright, using a modern piano but with only modest pedalling in slow movements and crisp, clean articulation in Allegros. He is a sensitive artist and obviously enjoys this repertoire, and he communicates this enjoyment to us.

These works appear to be the epitome of simplicity, but in fact they are usually through-composed, so that movements are built, often quite imaginatively and always resourcefully, out of the same basic material. Certain movements stand out, for instance the bouncing Presto second movement of the three-movement Sonata in C minor on the first disc, which is surprisingly like the second movement of the Sonata in G minor which then reuses the same idea for an Allegretto grazioso finale. The sonata which follows (in E major) brings an engaging set of variations for its second movement (of two), and the final sonata of the first volume opens with a delightful Andante e con espressione, the longest movement on the whole disc.

The second volume opens with a winning two-movement Sonata in C, and the works which follow are inventively varied, but in much the same style. When we come to the third volume, we realize that Galuppi is not seeking to break any formal barriers or make harmonic explorations, but applies his ideas within straightforward musical frameworks. Yet the three-movement C major Sonata included here is really very fetching in its simplicity, and the G major and E flat major sonatas are also most appealing. **(*)
(unnamed reviewer)