The cello repertory from the 18th century is not large. There are concertos by Vivaldi, Haydn, and some lesser composers, and these are sometimes recorded. Cellist Ophélie Gaillard and her small but mighty Pulcinella Orchestra take a different tack here, with highly enjoyable results. She offers a "Night in London," as it might have been presented by a cellist of the day. Gaillard does include a couple of cello concertos, and these are very fine. One, by Haydn's teacher Nicola Porpora, is both attractively melodic and ...
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The cello repertory from the 18th century is not large. There are concertos by Vivaldi, Haydn, and some lesser composers, and these are sometimes recorded. Cellist Ophélie Gaillard and her small but mighty Pulcinella Orchestra take a different tack here, with highly enjoyable results. She offers a "Night in London," as it might have been presented by a cellist of the day. Gaillard does include a couple of cello concertos, and these are very fine. One, by Haydn's teacher Nicola Porpora, is both attractively melodic and considerable in its technical demands. The other is by an even less familiar figure, Giovanni Battista Cirri, one of the many Italians of the age who departed to seek fame and fortune in the seat of the growing Empire. He is actually represented by more than just the attractive Cello Concerto No. 2 in G major, Op. 14, No. 2, for the program is modeled on Gaillard's conception of his repertory as a whole. She writes of how Cirri "moved with ease from one genre to another, one moment...
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