The growing catalogue of Platti albums on Brilliant Classics includes his Cello Concertos (BC94722), his keyboard works (BC95118) and a first recording of chamber music (BC94007). Taken together they paint a vivid and engaging portrait of an 18th-century musician/composer who came to exercise on generations of composers writing for the cello. Platti himself was proficient on several instruments but he retained a special affection for the cello, producing as many as 28 cello concertos – even more than Vivaldi – and other works including the 12 accompanied cello sonatas on this album. These are divided into two groups of six, both dated 1725 – just a few years after Bach’s cello suites.
The Italian cellist Francesco Galligioni has himself recorded much of the most significant Baroque solo-cello repertoire for Brilliant Classics, with albums of cello sonatas by Vivaldi (BC95346) and Lanzetti (BC95525) and the enormously influential solo Capricci by dell’Abaco (BC95762). For this album he has returned to the original manuscripts and chosen to record the two sets with different continuo accompaniments – with organ for the first set and violone for the second – making it unique as a considered and stylish response to this rarely recorded repertoire.
‘Galligioni is absolutely steeped in the idiom of Vivaldi’s cello writing and surmounts the technical challenges of these sonatas with consummate ease.’ (Early Music Review)
‘My respect for Dall’Abaco’s 11 Capricci is growing by leaps and bounds, and Galligioni’s playing of them is first-class.’ (Fanfare)
‘These are performances which marry color and expression to intelligence and good taste. Francesco Galligioni sings warmly through his Baroque cello, phrases with freedom, and ornaments persuasively on repeats... For those who regard an Italian Vivaldi as the “real deal,” this version might be essential.’ (Fanfare)
Giovanni Benedetto Platti (1697-1763) was born in Venice where he studied with Francesco Gasparini and Giovanni Legrenzi. In 1722 he left Italy for Germany, settling in Würzburg in the service of the Prince Bishop Johann Philipp von Schönborn.
Platti successfully bridged the worlds of the Baroque and Classicism. A remarkably versatile musician, performing as a keyboard player, cellist, oboist, violinist and singer, he wrote in a wide range of different genres and styles, in Venetian bel canto tradition, fusing baroque elements with the elegance and simplicity of the emerging Stile Galante.
This 2CD set contains the 12 Sonatas for Cello and Basso Continuo, music of great melodic invention and virtuosity.
Excellent performances in Historically Informed Performance Practice by Francesco Galligioni, one of the leading Baroque cellists of today. He worked with John Elliott Gardiner, Gustav Leonhardt, Christopher Hogwood, Diego Fasolis, and recorded for Archiv, Sony, Chandos and Brilliant. For Brilliant Classics he successfully recorded works by Lanzetti, Vivaldi (complete cello concertos and sonatas with L’Arte dell’Arco), Dall’Abaco and Albinoni.
