The Venetian anti-enlightenment
composer Baldassare Galuppi is a cause
celebre for pianist and scholar Peter
Seivewright, and his extended essays
in the booklets of the three available
volumes of his ongoing traversal of
the composer’s piano sonatas do a great
deal to advance Galuppi’s standing in
the musical world. Prolific and diverse,
the sonatas presented in this installment
are hit and miss from a musical standpoint,
with some very interesting works being
rudely juxtaposed with some rather pedestrian
writing.
Alas, as with volume
two of this series that I
reviewed some months ago, the interesting
historical read cannot save the day
for these rather dull and technically
imperfect performances. This is music
that begs for an elegant touch, which
Mr. Seivewright with his blurry trills
and scale passages, his stodgy choices
of tempo and complete lack of linear
sense, woefully lacks.
Further the Steinway
D, about which I complained in volume
two, has not been improved. It is still
the clangy, too closely recorded tin
box that caused me grief in the earlier
outing. This is music, with its modest
sonorities and drawing room charm, begs
to be played on either a harpsichord
or fortepiano. The overtly hot sound
of a modern concert grand overwhelms
the music, distorting its parlor appeal
and killing all of the finesse that
a period instrument would so readily
provide.
There are certainly
some lovely moments here, and Galuppi
is no stranger to a rollicking melody
or a tender cantabile passage. However,
I am not completely convinced that a
complete set of his sonatas is warranted.
A selection of the best of these works
would quite suffice, and would serve
also to enhance the composer’s reputation.
The wade through the lesser lights causes
his star to dim a bit.
. Perhaps Mr. Seivewright
will compile a highlights disc when
the project is complete. Let us hope
so, as I for one have little enthusiasm
for wading through volume four, whenever
it should appear.
Kevin Sutton
see
review Volume 1
Peter Seivewright, piano 
