Sonate antiche - Masters of the Baroque Cello

14 November 2025. 6:00 pm
Budapest Music Center - Library
1093 Budapest, Mátyás utca 8.

This evening will bring to life the most beautiful era of the baroque cello, from the first sonatas of the late 1600's to the sophisticated Italian masters of the 18th century.
The concert traces the instrument's development from its birth to the threshold of the Classical period, through the works of five composers and five different musical characters.
Bolognese cellist Domenico Gabrielli, whose name marks the dawn of the instrument's history. His Sonata in G major is one of the earliest independent works for the cello, with its fresh melodies and clear structure, reminiscent of the viola da gamba.
Jean-Baptiste Masse, musician at the Paris Opera and a founding figure of the French cello school, has a very different voice in his lyrical Sonata in G minor. Although he was a French composer, his works have the melodic richness and vocal expression of the Italian style, in a harmonious blend of the two musical worlds.
Francesco Geminiani, Corelli's pupil and a celebrated virtuoso in London and Dublin, also wrote his cello sonatas as an accomplished violinist. The Sonata in D major represents the most polished style of the Italian Baroque - with its rich harmonies, lively rhythms and masterly melodic lines that shape inner emotions.
Antonio Vivaldi's Sonata in E minor is the music of Venice: the musical splendour of the lagoon city and its deep melancholy are present simultaneously. The contrast between the darkly toned bass lines and the singing melodies creates a special tension that reflects the composer's operatic sensibility.
Giovanni Benedetto Platti's art concludes the concert, foreshadowing the subtleties of the Rococo. His Sonata in G minor is both intimate and virtuosic, with an elegance that straddles the boundaries of the Baroque and Classical periods, almost bridging the gap between the two styles.

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