The instrumental writing in these sonatas is highly idiomatic for the cello, featuring light and agile bowing, string leaps, and a left-hand extension up to C in the seventh position, which was rare at the time.
Composer Biography
A 1731 caricature by Pierleone Ghezzi is the only surviving image of Pietro Giuseppe Gaetano Boni, showing him with a melancholic look and a caption noting he became a priest.
Composer Biography
Pietro Giuseppe Gaetano Boni, the composer of these sonatas, was a 'cello virtuoso' and 'chamber assistant' to Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni in Rome.
Recording & Production
This recording features Andrea Fossà on cello, Anna Fontana on harpsichord, Francisco Gato on archlute, Andrea de Carlo on viola da gamba, and Renato Criscuolo on cello.
Composition History
Arcangelo Corelli, a famous violinist-composer, played an active role in Boni's move to Rome and his influence is clearly perceptible in these sonatas.
Composition History
These sonatas for cello and harpsichord, Boni's Opus 1, were dedicated to his patron Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni and published in Rome in 1717.
Compositional Technique
These sonatas are considered innovative for their organic formal structure, derived from Corelli's style, and for the semantic value given to the use of different keys across the collection.
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