Violoncello & Harpsichord Sonatas

This CD is the first of three planned albums with music by Giovanni Benedetto Platti, on which we record the twelve cello sonatas and the harpsichord sonatas op. 1 in their entirety. We are delighted that we have found in Platti an interesting and little-known composer whose music is well worth discovering. Giovanni Benedetto Platti is a classic example of one of the many underestimated composers of the 18th century. Today his name is known only to specialists and his music is familiar to few. Yet his work is well worth discovering: as a factotum at the court in Würzburg he wrote highly attractive sonatas and concerti for oboe, cello, harpsichord and flute among others, but also large-scale works such as a very interesting requiem. The twelve cello sonatas have been preserved in a manuscript from 1725 from the collection of Count von Schönborn in Wiesentheid. They all consist of four movements and are - as already mentioned, typical for Platti - characterized by a compact and strict compositional style. Almost no movement spans more than a full page of the score, and many of the slow movements only half a page.