Baldassare Galuppi

Most famous as an opera composer, Baldassare Galuppi was known during his lifetime as Il Buranello—a reference to the Venetian island of Burano, where he was born in 1706. During a glittering career, he travelled as far afield as Vienna, London and St. Petersburg until his death in 1785. Today he is perhaps best remembered for Robert Browning’s 1855 poem “A Toccata of Galuppi’s” than he is for his voluminous output in the full range of 18th-century genres. During his lifetime he became known as “the father of comic opera” and was considered second only to his younger contemporary, Niccolò Jommelli, among Venetian opera composers, while simultaneously holding posts at a variety of religious institutions in Venice, for which he wrote a great deal of sacred music. He was also a virtuoso keyboard player, and pianists as disparate as Michelangeli and Víkingur Ólafsson have continued to explore his abundant music for their instrument in the modern era. A number of civilised galant concertos for a range of soloists and ensembles give an idea of his sensitivity to instrumental colour.