PERLE DEL PIEMONTE
Violin music in 18th-century Italy

Giovanni Lorenzo Somis (1688-1775)
Sonata in A minor for violin and b.c., op. 1 no. 1
1 Adagio – Presto – Adagio
2 Allegro – Adagio
3 Adagio
4 Allegro

Giovanni Battista Somis (1686-1763)
Sonata in C major for violin and b.c., op. 6 no. 4
5 Adagio
6 Allegro
7 Menuet: Variazioni 1, 2, 3

Gaspare Giuseppe Chiabrano (1725-1802)
Sonata III in F major for cello and b.c.
8 Allegretto
9 Adagio
10 Allegretto

Felice Giardini (1716-1796)
Sonata II op. 31 in G major for harpsichord and violin
11 Andante
12 Rondò. Andante

Giovanni Battista Canavasso (1713-1784)
Sonata II in D minor for cello and b.c.
13 Allegretto
14 Andante
15 Aria 1 – Tempo di minuetto – Grazioso – Aria 2

Gaetano Pugnani (1731-1798)
Sonata op. 6 no 1 in B flat major for violin and b.c.
16 Allegretto
17 Largo
18 Andantino: Variazioni 1, 2, 3

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About this CD

For many people, the poetry of the violinist Enrico Gatti, which we have been enjoying in concerts and on recordings (for labels such as Symphonia, Arcana and Glossa) for more than three decades is unparalleled when addressing the subtlest of Italian music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. For this 1992 recording, Gatti alights upon some of the loveliest of eighteenth-century pieces for his instrument which were composed for the Court of Savoy in Turin, including works by Somis, Giardini and Pugnani, unveiling for us a fascinating and seldom-visited world.