Brescianello - Sonatas for Gallichone

36 tracks - MP3 192 Kbps - RAR 108


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The gallichone, in case you were wondering, is a bass lute with a long, fretted neck; it is also known as a mandora. An image of the artwork might have been helpful. The instrument's solo repertory, mostly from the 18th century and as much German as Italian, is not large. One of the largest groups of solo pieces is a set of 18 multi-movement works by Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello, excerpted and called sonatas here, although they're really somewhere between sonatas and suites. Each one has between three and five movements, a minute or two long, in simple binary form. The composer, born in Florence, bounced around the courts of central Germany for awhile and finally settled in Stuttgart. His successors there included prominent members of the Mannheim School, and many of these pieces have an attractive lightness that was fully up to date around 1740, when they are thought to have been composed. But the biggest attraction is simply hearing the big low lute, generally used as a continuo instrument, emerge in a solo role. Brescianello was known as a violinist, and hearing him play these works must have been an attractive dose of trickery. The listener's enjoyment here is impeded, however, by unpleasantly resonant sound from a Padua church; apparently the engineers simply went in search of the most live sound environment they could find in the area. Gallichone player Terrel Stone's performances, however, are sprightly and clean. Certainly worthwhile for students of the instrumentarium of the 18th century.

contents:

Sonata no. 1 in C major
Sonata no. 2 in G major
Sonata no. 3 in B flat major
Sonata no. 4 in F major
Sonata no. 5 in B flat major
Sonata no. 6 in G major
Sonata no. 7 in C major
Sonata no. 8 in G major
Sonata no. 9 in B major

Terrell Stone, gallichone