Organ Works

Four of the six sonatas contained on this CD (unnumbered in the K catalogue) are held in the archives of the Escolania de Montserrat: AM 1770 (in C Major), AM 2158 (C Major, G Major and G Minor), and AM 2786 (also in C Major).
Attributed to Domenico Scarlatti by Bengt Johnsson, they were published for the first time in the first of three volumes dedicated to the Sonatas of Scarlatti issued by the Henle Verlag.
These compositions are certainly less original than the standard Scarlatti sonatas, but are nonetheless interesting for their form, which resembles that of the sonatas by Lorenzo De Rossi.
The biographical information concerning Lorenzo De Rossi 1) (Rome, 1720 –1794) is virtually non-existent.
A Roman singer, he is remembered above all as a virtuoso on the harpsichord, an instrument to which he dedicated his only collection of instrumental music (and his only known work), “Sei Sonate per Cembalo da eseguirsi ancora coll’Organo”2).
This collection, the printing costs of which were paid for by Luigi Marescalchi and Carlo Canobbio in Venice, is undated.
The “Catalogo della musica Vocale, ed Instrumentale”3)(printed again thanks to the contribution of Marescalchi and Canobbio) allows us, however, to surmise a date of around 1750.
The six sonatas in the collection are all divided into two movements, the first of which is invariably lyrical in character and moderato in tempo, while the second is always an allegro.
The collection has an additional peculiarity: all six of the sonatas are in major keys.