Cirri: Sonatas and Duos for Cello

The debut album from a Spanish string-bass ensemble with a mission to revive lost treasures of chamber music from the Baroque era.

This world premiere recording presents four sonatas and four duos by Giovanni Battista Cirri (1724-1808), a cello virtuoso and teacher whose reputation took him across Europe - including to London, where for a time during the 1760s he was employed by members of the Royal Family, and took part in the first concert given in the English capital by the eight-year-old Mozart.

Giovanni Battista Cirri (1724-1808) was born in Forli, a town in northern Italy between Bologna and Rimini. He quickly became a virtuoso on the cello and began to write his first compositions, which is why in 1760 he decided to travel to Paris and present some of these works at the Concert Spirituel, where he met great musicians and cellists of the time, such as Duport. After this three-year stay in Paris, he travelled to London where he became a renowned artist, giving public and private concerts, even once sharing the stage with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, then still a teenager. After 1780 Cirri returned to Italy, specifically to Rome and Naples, and finally retired to his native city with the title of Maestro di Capella del Duomo.

Cirri's music is in the best tradition of the first Viennese School of Mozart and Haydn, the strong classical form as basis for charming and appealing melodies, as well as instrumental brilliance.
The Cello Sonatas were composed after his return to Italy, and are influenced by the experiences he gained during his travels and his contact with other European musicians. In addition to the sonatas we hear a selection of the Duets for two cellos, in which the two voices develop a soloist role in equal parts and have a clear pedagogical purpose to be performed by student and teacher.