BHS: The Splendour of Venice

 

Carole Cerasi explores some of the most exciting keyboard music to come out of Venice. Ranging from composers Picchi, Storace and Galuppi

Description

Carole Cerasi (harpsichord) explores some of the most exciting and pleasing keyboard music to come out of La Serenissima in the course of two centuries. From Giovanni Picchi’s almost barbaric dances, via Bernardo Storace’s imaginative and exciting Ciacconas and Passacaglias, to Baldassare Galuppi’s elegant and lyrical sonatas, the music of Venice offers far more than Vivaldi’s ubiquitous violin concertos. A number of these wonderful works were appropriated by Bach as a way of absorbing the Italian style, and his version of the Concerto RV310 provides a suitably exuberant ending to this recital. Galuppi told the historian Charles Burney that the definition of good music is ‘vaghezza, chiarezza, e buona modulazione’ (beauty, clearness, and good modulation). There is no doubt that the strongest candidate for those qualities in this programme is JS Bach; however each of the Italian composers presented has a clear and individual voice that is far too seldom heard and deserves to be enjoyed.

The programme will include works by Giovanni Picchi, Bernardo Storace, JS Bach, Antonio Vivaldi and Baldassare Galuppi