Cimarosa: 21 Organ Sonatas Andrea Chezzi

• Domenico Cimarosa (1749 - 1801):
• 1Organ Sonata in C Major - Allegro, C54, F5404:03
• 2Organ Sonata in A Minor - Largo, C55, F5504:22
• 3Organ Sonata in C Major - Allegro, C50, F5002:55
• 4Organ Sonata in G Minor - Andantino, C33, F3301:41
• 5Organ Sonata in G Major - Allegro, C32, F3202:30
• 6Organ Sonata in D Minor - Andante con moto, C79, F7903:13
• 7Organ Sonata in D Major - Allegretto, C30, F3003:33
• 8Organ Sonata in A Major - Allegro, C19, F1902:43
• 9Organ Sonata in A Minor - Andantino grazioso, C58, F5801:48
• 10Organ Sonata in A Major - Allegro, C21, F2101:37
• 11Organ Sonata in D Minor - Andantino, C42, F4201:15
• 12Organ Sonata in F Major - Allegro, C51, F5103:20
• 13Organ Sonata in B-Flat Minor/Major - Andantino, allegro assai, C70, F7003:24
• 14Organ Sonata in G Minor - Largo, C61, F6103:06
• 15Organ Sonata in B-Flat Major - Allegro, C1, F103:36
• 16Organ Sonata in G Minor - Andantino, C52, F5203:54
• 17Organ Sonata in G Major - Allegro, C53, F5303:12
• 18Organ Sonata in C Minor - Larghetto, C49, F4902:26
• 19Organ Sonata in C Minor - Allegro, C28, F2803:28
• 20Organ Sonata in E-Flat Major - Andantino, C37, F3702:15
• 21Organ Sonata in C Minor - Allegro, C68, F6802:13
• Total Runtime01:00:34

Info for Cimarosa: 21 Organ Sonatas

Brilliant Classics has already published all 88 of Domenico Cimarosa’s keyboard sonatas in their commonly encountered appearance as harpsichord pieces (BC95027), as well as an album of 30 sonatas in arrangements for guitar (BC94172). He may still be better known as a composer of comic opera, for masterpiece such as Il matrimonio segreto, but this new album of the sonatas in versions for organ celebrates the variety and adaptability of Cimarosa’s idiom and demonstrates why he was so lionized in his own time.

The painter Delacroix preferred Cimarosa’s music to Mozart’s. Stendhal wrote that he would rather be hanged than be forced to state which of the two he preferred. Even the notoriously partial Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick lavished praise on Cimarosa’s wonderful facility, inventive compositional strokes and refined taste, and Goethe, no less, directed several productions of his operas.

Perhaps Cimarosa’s sheer fluency has told against his posthumous reputation: where to begin with 88 attractive sonatas? In his own booklet introduction, Andrea Chezzi explains that he has reviewed all of them and chosen 21 which seem particularly suitable for performance on the organ. He has ordered them to alternate slow and fast pieces, made marginal adjustments such as a few pedal doublings, and recorded them here on a historically appropriate instrument by Andrea Boschini (before 1755) and Giovanni Cavalletti (1814), located in the Sanctuary of the Beata Vergine dello Spino, Brugneto di Reggiolo, in the Italian province of Reggio Emilia.

Andrea Chezzi’s previous recordings for Brilliant Classics have attracted glowing reviews, such as the Op.1 harpsichord sonatas by Baldassare Galuppi (BC95253): ‘The performance by Chezzi is bold and decisive… It is a disc with music that can excite the imagination, performed with grace and style by Chezzi. It also shows that Galuppi is more than just a pretty operatic face.’ (Fanfare, July 2016) The same could justly be said of Cimarosa thanks to this new album of his evergreen sonatas.

Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801) was one of the best known composers of the Neapolitan School. He held several important musical posts throughout Europe (St. Petersburg, The Emperor Leopold in Vienna) as a highly successful composer of operas. His best known work is the opera Il Matrimonio Segreto, which brought him universal fame.

Cimarosa’s output for keyboard consists of a great number of sonatas, short, one-movement works, charmingly melodious, witty and entertaining.

On this new recording the Sonatas are played on the organ, a common practice in a time when the distinction between instruments was not clearly defined yet.

Andrea Chezzi plays two historic instruments: a Andrea Boxchini (before 1755) and a Giovanni Cavalletti (1814).

Andrea Chezzi made two successful recordings for Brilliant Classics with works by Galuppi and C.P.E. Bach.

Andrea Chezzi, organ

Andrea Chezzi
was born in Colorno, Parma.He began studying music with his uncle, Lino Chezzi, member of the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra in Milan. He continued his musical training at the A.Boito Conservatory in Parma, graduating in Organ and Organ Composition under Stefano Innocenti in 1997 and in Harpischord under Maria Pia Iacobini in 2000. Hefurthered his harpischord studies under the guidance of Professor Bob van Asperen at the Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten.

Alongside his instrumental studies, he graduated in Composition under Luigi Abate at the A.Boito Conservatory in Parma in 2002.

He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Modern Literature from the University of Parma, 2007. His thesis discussed musical life at the Bourbon court of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza in the late sevententh century. He also specialised in librarianship and antiquarian cataloguing at La Biblioteca Estense, University of Modena.

He has taken courses in the performance practice of early music with L. F. Tagliavini, W. van de Pol, Ch. Stembridge, G. Murray, A. Marcon and Ch. Rousset at the Accademia Chigiana, Siena.

Andrea Chezzi has given concert performances both as soloist and with chamber orchestras in cities throughout Italy, earning invitations from prestigious public bodies and cultural associations to perform at classical music festivals. These include: Soli deo gloria (Reggio Emilia), Musica intorno al Fiume (Reggio Emilia), Festival Ferdinandeo (Parma), Antichi Organi (Piacenza), Armonie tra Musica e Architettura (Modena), Itinerari organistici (Modena), Musicomania (Trento), Organi storici mantovani, Le voci della città (Milan), Milano Arte Musica, Cantantibus Organi (Milan), I concerti di san Torpete (Genova), Festival Organistico Internazionale Vicenza, Rassegna organistica Valsassinese (LC), Festival Organistico dell’Alta Maremma (GR), Organi Storici in Cadore (BL), San Giacomo Festival (BO), Organalia (TO), I Concerti di Camapagna (Roma), Un sistema armonico (BO-MO), Festival Organistico Internazionale Rapallo (GE), Vespri d’Organo a San Giorgio Maggiore (VE). He has also given recitals in Parma, at 'La Camera di San Paolo', in Mantua, at the Basilica Palatina di Santa Barbara and in the Ducal Palaces of Colorno and Sassuolo. He has collaborated with various musical ensembles for voice and instrument such as Gli orfei Farnesiani, l’Ensemble Guidantus, I Musici di Parma, Il Continuo.

He has made CD recordings on the restored historic organs Traeri (1734, Mezzano Rondani, Parma, where he was titular organist), Montesanti (1813, Acquanegra sul Chiese, Mantua) for the classical music label MV Cremona, Benedetti (1765, Brescello, Reggio Emilia) for Fugatto (Metz France). He has also made CD recordings on the harpsichord (Galuppi's sonatas) for Brilliant. His Cds won acclaimed reviews from specialist publications (Suonare news, 5 Stelle Amadeus, 5 Stelle Choir & Organ).

In 2013, the Dutch classical music label Brilliant Classics selected him as harpsichordist from among the musicians who had contributed to the production of the Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Edition on the 300th anniversary of the composer's birth. For the same label he recorded the Sonatas op. 1 for harpsichord by Baldassare Galuppi. His essay on the Bourbon Duke Ferdinand's musical relationship with music appeared in the third volume of the Italian organ magazine 'Arte organaria italiana'.

He is artistic director of Colorno's cultural association 'La Compagnia del Lorno' and co-founder of the 'Associazione Culturale Giuseppe Serassi' whose aim is to promote and foster appreciation of the organ and early instruments.

Writing in the French music magazine ResMusica, F.Munoz says of Andrea; «La virtuosité de l’interprète est totale, il défend cette musique comme personne, dans des tempi parfois incroyables».

Booklet for Cimarosa: 21 Organ Sonatas