About Giovan Battista Gervasio's life we have only a few, fragmentary pieces of information. We do not know the exact years or places of his birth or death, and can only surmise that he was born in Naples in the third decade of the eighteenth century, and that he died after 1786, year of the publication of the last printed composition of his that is available to us. The music recorded here is a performance of the six sonatas in manuscript form preserved in Uppsala and Paris, the complete corpus of Gervasio's currently known sonatas. The InchordisTrio has been performing Giovan Battista Gervasio's sonatas for mandolin and basso continuo since it's establishment, including them in it's concert programmes. It is a very interesting, sometimes even surprising, music. In spite of it's rough formal simplicity, it turns out to be particularly effective and able to evoke the eighteenth-century Neapolitan Baroque atmosphere, through a series of stylistic features that belong to the typically Neapolitan composition procedure, with melodic solutions that are enjoyable, captivating, and pleasantly engrossing for both listeners and performers. The structure of the InchordisTrio, which is formed exclusively of plucked string instruments, stimulates a performance research and a rather distinctive construction of the basso continuo, based on an alternation of accompanying instruments, of empty and full parts, of timbres, and also on little melodic exchanges between the mandolin, the archlute and the harpsichord.

Tracklist:

Mandolin Sonata In D Major, Gimo 144: I. Allegro Maestoso
Mandolin Sonata In D Major, Gimo 144: II. Largo Pizzicato
Mandolin Sonata In D Major, Gimo 144: III. Allegro Assay
Mandolin Sonata In C Major, L. 2767: I. Allegro
Mandolin Sonata In C Major, L. 2767: II. Largo Amoroso
Mandolin Sonata In C Major, L. 2767: III. Allegro
Mandolin Sonata In D Major, Gimo 142: I. Allegro
Mandolin Sonata In D Major, Gimo 142: II. Larghetto Grazioso
Mandolin Sonata In D Major, Gimo 142: III. Allegro
Mandolin Sonata In D Major, L. 2768: I. Allegro
Mandolin Sonata In D Major, L. 2768: II. Largo Amoroso
Mandolin Sonata In D Major, L. 2768: III. Taice Alla Tedesca
Mandolin Sonata In D Major, L. 2082: I. Allegro A Suo Comodo
Mandolin Sonata In D Major, L. 2082: II. Minuetto Al Gusto Italiano
Mandolin Sonata In D Major, L. 2082: III. Gavotta. Allegretto Gustoso
Mandolin Sonata In G Major, Gimo 145: I. Allegro
Mandolin Sonata In G Major, Gimo 145: II. Larghetto - Andantino Grazioso
Mandolin Sonata In G Major, Gimo 145: III. Allegro Con Molto Spirito

UPC: 8007194107111
Label: Tactus Records
Release Date: 10.4.19
Format: CD

Gervasio / Zigiotti / Valgimigli - Sonatas for Mandolino & Basso (CD)