Platti / Molardi Complete Music For Harpsichord & Organ CD

Having recorded for Brilliant Classics the complete organ music of J.S. Bach and Kuhnau, the Italian organist and keyboard performer has turned his attention to the less-familiar output of Giovanni Benedetto Platti (1697-1763). As his dates might imply, Platti's career and music bridged the evolution from Baroque to Classical idioms, much in the same manner as Bach's son Carl Philipp Emanuel did, and with a comparable brilliance of invention. The influence of Italian Baroque masters such as Corelli, Vivaldi and Marcello is plainly heard in the sprightly cast of his quick melodies and their working out over a solid ground bass. However, Platti was also acclaimed as a singing teacher, as well as being a renowned singer in his own right. Many passages in his sonatas are endowed with the native Italian lyricism of opera, though in fact Platti left Venice for Germany in 1722 and established himself at a royal court in W?rzburg. Platti's long career in Germany left it's mark on his music in terms of harmonic and formal innovation: many movements in these sonatas take unpredictable detours into remote keys, and the slow movements such as the Larghetto aria of the Second are cast in a plaintive, melancholy mood that bears passing resemblance to the slow dances in the English Suites of Bach. This reconciliation of Venetian Baroque with nascent bel canto and German rationalism makes Platti's sonatas an object example of the stile galante which is gaining ever more attention on record thanks to the rediscovery of many hitherto unheard works in the modern age. Stefano Molardi performs them on this album with three different instruments according to the character of each work: a German-model fretted clavichord, a harpsichord built on a 17th-century Italian model, and a 1713 organ by Giuseppe Bonatti, to be found in the Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of Valverde in the province of Brescia.

1. I. Fantasia Allegro 2. II. Adagio 3. III. Allegro 4. IV. Allegro 5. I. Adagio 6. II. Allegro 7. III. Aria Larghetto 8. IV. Allegro 9. I. Non Tanto Allegro 10. II. Sarabanda Adagio 11. III. Minuet 12. IV. Trio 13. V. Minuet 14. VI. Giga: Allegro Assai 15. I. Largo 16. II. Presto E Alla Breve 17. III. Adagio 18. IV. Non Tanto Allegro 19. I. Allegro 20. II. Andantino 21. III. Allegro Assai 22. I. Non Tanto Allegro 23. II. Larghetto 24. III. Polonaise 25. IV. Allegro 26. I. Adagio 27. II. Allegro 28. III. Largo 29. IV. Presto 30. I. Adagio 31. II. Allegretto 32. III. Grave 33. IV. Minuet Con Variazioni 34. I. Larghetto E Staccato 35. II. Non Tanto Allegro 36. III. Siciliana 37. IV. Presto 38. I. Adagio 39. II. Allegro 40. III. Menuet 41. IV. Trio 42. V. Allegro 43. I. Allegro 44. II. Andantino 45. III. Allegro 46. I. Adagio 47. II. Allegro 48. III. Allegro 49. I. Allegro 50. II. Adagio 51. III. Allegro Assai 52. I. Non Tanto Allegro 53. II. Presto 54. III. Andantino E Staccato 55. IV. Minuetto 56. V. Trio 57. VI. Minuetto Da Capo 58. I. Andantino 59. II. Allegro 60. III. Menuet 61. IV. Presto 62. I. Larghetto 63. II. Allegro 64. III. Menuet I 65. IV. Menuet II 66. V. Allegro 67. I. Allegro 68. II. Adagio 69. III. Presto 70. I. Largo 71. II. Allegro 72. III. Tempo Di Menuet 73. IV. Allegro