Born on the island of Burano in the Venetian lagoon, Baldassare Galuppi (1706-1785) trained as a teenager with Antonio Lotti, first organist at the Basilica San Marco. His talents were soon in demand, and Venetian theatres engaged him as a keyboard player and composer, in which capacity he successfully wrote music forseveral occasions.

Galuppi’s style was defined during his lifetime as ‘gay, lively and brilliant’, and the three adjectives aptly describe the two published sets of six keyboard sonatas published during his lifetime as Opp. 1 and 2. He used elementary sonata-allegro forms, ranging from the simple binary dance forms of the Baroque to mono- and bi-thematic sonata-forms with embryonic development sections and complete recapitulations, as found in the works of Domenico Scarlatti, Pergolesi, and early Haydn.

“The young pianist Fernanda Damiano is a real marvel; she has a very remarkable pianism. She is destined, I am sure, to a very brilliant career” (Aldo Ciccolini).