Galuppi: Concerti a Quattro, Trio Sonata - Vienna Chamber Orchestra

BALDASSARE GALUPPI is remembered today chiefly as a composer of comic operas. His harmony, rhythm and orchestration were far in advance of most of his contemporaries. In 1766 Empress Catherine II invited him to St. Petersburg where his opera Didone abbandonata made a very favorable impression. Although he made a few trips abroad, Galuppi spent most of his life in Venice, where he became Maestro di cappella in 1762. 

In addition to his operas, Galuppi composed a  variety  of  instrumental  works, including fifty harpsichord sonatas, three flute concerti (two of which are for two flutes), two harpsichord concerti, seven concerti for strings and one trio sonata. 

Galuppi' s music forms a transition between the Baroque and the Rococo, since it contains elements from both eras. 

The Concerti a Quattro of Galuppi are some of the earliest examples of music for the string quartet. Like the sonate a quattro of Tartini and Alessandro Scarlatti, they would be equally effective when performed by four solo players or with a string orchestra including a harpsichord. The Concerti a Quattro are closely related in form and content to the Baroque era. The number and style of the movements, the themes, the very idiom of the music, all reflect a polyphonic tradition. There are, however, certain characteristics which point to the pre-classic and galant style, such as structural variations within a given form, or certain types of melodies which are rococo in spirit in spite of their contrapuntal setting.