PlattiComplete Music for Harpsichord and Organ

Stefano Molardi

Giovanni Benedetto Platti 1697-1763Complete Music for Harpsichord and Organ

Sonata VIII in C minor Op.4 No.21. I. Fantasia Allegro 7’302. II. Adagio 3’503. III. Allegro 2’464. IV. Allegro 3’00

Sonata II in C Op.1 No.25. I. Adagio 4’236. II. Allegro 3’157. III. Aria Larghetto 3’268. IV. Allegro 2’53

Sonata III in F Op.1 No.39. I. Non tanto Allegro 5’4110. II. Sarabanda Adagio 3’1611. III. Minuet 1’2012. IV. Trio 2’0513. V. Minuet 0’4314. VI. Giga Allegro assai 3’44

Sonata IV in G minor Op.4 No.4** 15. I. Largo 3’5416. II. Presto e alla breve 2’3717. III. Adagio 5’2818. IV. Non tanto Allegro 2’25

Sonata XV in F38. I. Adagio 2’4339. II. Allegro 2’2540. III. Menuet 1’1841. IV. Trio 0’5742. V. Allegro 2’26

Sonata XIV in C43. I. Allegro 3’0344. II. Andantino 2’5545. III. Allegro 2’18

Sonata XI in C minor Op.4 No.546. I. Adagio 3’3447. II. Allegro 2’2748. III. Allegro 2’25

Sonata X in A minor Op.4 No.4*49. I. Allegro 4’4150. II. Adagio 2’5251. III. Allegro assai 4’31

Sonata VII in F Op.4 No.152. I. Non tanto Allegro 2’3253. II. Presto 4’2854. III. Andantino e staccato 5’1955. IV. Minuetto 1’2656. V. Trio 1’2557. VI. Minuetto da capo 0’46

Sonata XIII in F*58. I. Andantino 4’5359. II. Allegro 3’3760. III. Menuet 1’4761. IV. Presto 2’28

Sonata XVI in F62. I. Larghetto 3’2463. II. Allegro 2’2364. III. Menuet I 0’4765. IV. Menuet II 1’1766. V. Allegro 1’53

Sonata XVII in B flat67. I. Allegro 3’0968. II. Adagio 5’5669. III. Presto 2’25

Sonata XVIII in E flat70. I. Largo 3’5971. II. Allegro 1’3072. III. Tempo di Menuet 1’2573. IV. Allegro 1’55

Stefano Molardi harpsichord, clavichord and organ

* organ** clavichord

Sonata IX in G Op.4 No.3*19. I. Allegro 5’2620. II. Andantino 3’4621. III. Allegro assai 5’15

Sonata XII in C Op.4 No.6*22. I. Non tanto Allegro 6’4923. II. Larghetto 3’2824. III. Polonaise 2’0925. IV. Allegro 3’23

Sonata I in D Op.1 No.126. I. Adagio 2’5627. II. Allegro 3’2228. III. Largo 4’1529. IV. Presto 4’23

Sonata VI in E Op.1 No.630. I. Adagio 3’2231. II. Allegretto 3’1032. III. Grave 3’1633. IV. Minuet con variazioni 3’02

Sonata V in C minor Op.1 No.5*34. I. Larghetto e staccato 3’3235. II. Non tanto Allegro 5’3436. III. Siciliana 4’2537. IV. Presto 4’10

Recording: August 2017, Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of Valverde, Rezzato (Brescia); September 2017, Auditorium della “Casa d’organi” Daniele Giani, Corte de’ Frati (Cremona), ItalySound engineer, Artistic supervision, Editing & mastering: Federico SavioCover: Samuel Prout, Würzburg, c. 1860p & © 2018 Brilliant Classics

With great brilliance and refinement, the Venetian composer Giovanni Benedetto Platti (1697-1763) bridged the worlds of the baroque and classicism. In Venice he had studied with Francesco Gasparini, an outstanding figure in the fields of instrumental music and opera of the time, and possibly under Legrenzi as well. Then in 1722 he left Italy for Germany, settling in Würzburg in the service of the Prince Bishop Johann Philipp Franz von Schönborn.

Like many of his colleagues of the 17th and 18th centuries, Platti was a remarkably versatile musician, performing as a keyboard player, cellist, oboist, violinist and singer. The works that he composed comprised a range of different genres, from chamber music to sacred works and opera. In particular, the 18 harpsichord sonatas (VI Sonates pour le Clavessin sur le Gout Italien, Op.1 – 1742; VI Sonate per Clavicembalo solo, Op.4 – 1746; the rest in manuscript version) reveal all the stylistic elements typical of the period mixed together with taste and distinction. Handled with unfailing finesse and elegance, passages reminiscent of Corelli, Vivaldi and even Benedetto Marcello come clearly to the fore. 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 lyricism of Italian opera, especially the slow movements. Moreover, his long stay in Germany meant that the formal structure of his compositions echoed something of the works of coeval German composers, in particular Bach’s sons. His sonatas reveal original traces of the belcanto tradition and Venetian music, and at the same time reconcile baroque taste with the nascent simplicity and rationality of what came to be known as the stile galante. They were a constant source of new ideas developed in an interesting, unpredictable manner. Platti is thus remembered as one of the fathers of the modern Sonata, a point of reference for composers of the following generation, especially W.A. Mozart.

The performance of these sonatas takes into account a number of historical circumstances, including the fact that at the time no one particular instrument was indicated as indispensable. So the sonatas could have been played on a harpsichord,

a clavichord, a fortepiano or an organ. Indeed, the decision to play some of them on the organ derives from the score itself, which puts to good use certain registers of the Bonatti organ of 1713, such as the cornetto and the Pastorale (reed stop), and also accentuates particularly intense affetti, as with the Sonata No.5 in C minor.

On occasions the idiom appears somewhat terse, suggesting an approach to playing that was typical of the keyboard style of the 1600s and 1700s, where the score written for two voices would have been completed with richer harmonies during performance thanks to the addition of the basso continuo (for example Handel, Marcello and Galuppi). Moreover, according to period evidence, the arts of improvisation and ornamentation were essential requisites for performance. The former concerned not only the insertion of various episodes and cadences within the compositions themselves, but also, as we have already pointed out, the extemporaneous addition of the basso continuo. As for ornamentation, it involved adding embellishments to certain notes (trills, appoggiatura, etc.), and effecting “diminutions”, that is the division of the notes of one voice into smaller values, usually in the slower movements and refrains. Starting in the Renaissance, many treatises provide a wide range of examples of this sort of embellishment (Ganassi, Conforti, Diruta, Tartini, C.P.E. Bach, to mention but a few).

At the time a piece of music was considered akin to a speech aimed at expressing affetti, in other words moving the Passions. Daniel Gottlob Türk, for example, in his Clavierschule published in Leipzig in 1789, declared that “essential extemporaneous ornamentation is decisive in any good performance. Moreover, there are other requisites: fine sound, free and easy pace, appropriate expression and other equally useful resources...”. Elsewhere he insisted that “...Playing with out strict adherence to measure is necessary in the free fantasias, the cadenzas, the fermatas and suchlike, and in the recitative parts. In all these cases the music should be played in relation to feeling rather than tempi. Certain of these passages are now also found in sonatas, concertos and similar genres...”. Türk also avowed that “...in compositions expressing

anger and vehemence, the more emphatic passages can be played at greater speed. Certain ideas repeated with increasing intensity (usually in the acute register) can also call for greater speed...”. To which he added that “...rubato is the third resource available to the performer. This is commonly considered a sort of contraction, extension, displacement of notes with respect to the basso continuo,...where the notes of the basso continuo keep to the established tempi and only the notes of the melody are staggered.”

C. Ph. E. Bach also referred to rubato in his Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen (Berlin 1759), describing the style in the following terms: “…When the performance is such that one hand seems to play out of time while the other keeps strict time, and it can be said that the performer has done everything that it is reasonable to expect of him…”© Stefano MolardiTranslation by Kate Singleton

Organ by Giuseppe Bonatti, 1713Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of Valverde – Rezzato (Brescia)1 manual consisting of 45 notes (C1-C5) with short first octave, pedal-board with 14 pedals (C1-F2), constantly connected to the manual.

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Stefano MolardiBorn in Cremona, Stefano Molardi is an organist, musicologist, harpsichordist and conductor who trained under eminent musicians such as E. Viccardi, D. Costantini, E. Kooiman, C. Stembridge, H. Vogel, L.F. Tagliavini and in particular Michael Radulescu, with whom he took a Masters Degree at the Hochschule für Musik (now the Musikuniversität) in Vienna, and with whom he plays basso continuo in the Académie Bach at Porrentruy in Switzerland.

Winner of numerous national and international organ competitions, including the Pasian in Prato (Udine) in 1998, Viterbo (1996), Burges and the Paul Hofhaimer in Innsbruck, his intense concert schedule as a soloist and member of chamber ensembles involves him in tours of Italy, other European countries, Brazil and the USA. He

German fretted clavichord strung by Florindo Gazzola54 notes C-f’”

Italian harpsichord built by Gianfranco Facchini in 1998, on a 17th century model.1 keyboard consisting of 49 keys C-c’’’; 2 X 8’; 1 X 4’

In 2013 he recorded J. S. Bach’s complete organ works in 15 CDs for Brilliant Classics, winning important international accolades such as 5 stars in the review Musica and in the BBC Music Magazine in London. In 2015, for the same label he recorded the complete works for the organ by J. Kuhnau, and in 2017 the complete organ works by J. Michael Bach and J. Christoph Bach, receiving for both recordings the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik in Germany.

In September 2017 he conducted the Accademia Barocca Italiana and internationally acclaimed soloists in a performance of Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine at Bellelay Abbey near Berne, broadcast by Radio Suisse Romande.

has played at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the Sao Paulo Hall in Brazil, the Musikverien in Vienna, the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Jordan Hall in Boston, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Teatro la Fenice in Venice, etc.

As an organist he is regularly invited to play in concerts and hold master classes in important festivals in Italy, Europe, the USA and Japan. In 2009 he played the complete organ works by Franz Liszt and Cesar Franck in Lugano.

He is tenured organ professor at the Lugano Conservatoire in Switzerland and at the Trapani Conservatoire.

He has recorded for the Tactus, Christophorus and Deutsch Grammonphon labels. From 2003 to 2010 for the Swiss label Divox he recorded 4 CDs devoted to solo organ music by Claudio Merulo and others in which he conducted the Virtuosi delle Muse baroque orchestra. He directed this latter ensemble from 2005 to 2013, meeting with great critical acclaim in magazines such as Amadeus, Early Music and Crescendo, and receiving many important international accolades, including a 5 Diapason rating from the French review of the same name, 5 stars from Goldberg, 5 stars and CD of the month from Amadeus. His performances have been broadcast by SWR in Germany, Mezzo in France, Radio France, Radio Suisse Romande.

He has conducted various instrumental and vocal concerts in Italy, Hungary, France, Germany, Austria, Spain and the USA, with performances of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (Ferrara, church of S. Cristoforo alla Certosa), Bach’s St. John Passion and the Magnificat (Ferrara), the Mozart Requiem (Festival dell’Aurora, Crotone), the opera Ademira composed by Lucchesi in 1784 (Teatro Dovizi, Bibbiena), Mitridate composed by Porpora 1730-36 (Teatro Caldéron, Valladolid), Vivaldi’s Il Farnace and Il Giustino (Theater an der Wien, Vienna, Théatre des Champs-Elysées, Paris), as well as concerts in Bilbao, Oldeburg, Rheingau, Cremona (Monteverdi Festival), Paris, Nantes, Munich, Innsbruck, London, Montpellier, Schwetzingen, Dachau, Miami, Istanbul, Valencia, etc.

Since 2013 he has directed the Accademia Barocca Italiana, which follows on from the Virtuosi delle Muse.