Edouardo Torbianelli - Music at the Medici Court on Cristofori’s early pianoforte (2011)

In addition to the quality of the music and the performance of it, central to any recording bearing the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis’ imprimatur is that there should be a very good (musicological) detective story behind it and this Edoardo Torbianelli-led programme of Piano e forte is no exception. Existing thinking deems that the fortepiano was hardly a prevalent instrument in Italy in the 18th century at all, in terms of music written for it or suitable instruments being available, but here a spotlight is being shone on the figure of Bartolomeo Cristofori and his building of early pianofortes for the Medici Court in Florence. Cristofori was active enough also to encourage composers such as Alessandro Marcello, Veracini and Alessandro Scarlatti to write for this instrument – much softer in sound than a grand piano but with that steplessly variable transition from very soft to loud which was a great novelty for stringed keyboard instruments of the time.

Demonstrating the musical and technical qualities of the results are internationally-recognised performers of the stamp of soprano María Cristina Kiehr, violinist Chiara Banchini and flautist Marc Hantaï. They join Torbianelli and other rising artists in gambist Rebeka Rusò and theorbist Daniele Caminiti in a sparkling array of ariettas, serenatas and sonatas for keyboard and other instruments, portraying the richness of Italian musical life in the first half of the 18th century, the travelling lives of musicians (and instrument makers) and how the early piano was heard not just in the courts of England, Germany, Spain and Portugal but in Italy too.