Caporale, Sonata No. 3 in A Major // Baroque Cello

Andrea/Francisco Caporale (1700–1746)
Violoncello Sonata No. 3 in A Major
    Adagio
    Allegro
    Cantabile

Piccolo Violoncello: Erin Lupardus
Violoncello: Julia Willeitner
Harpsichord: Martina Oman

Performed on October 20th, 2021 at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität as part of my master's recital entitled "Viva Italia, Rule Britannia: Italophilia and the Violoncello in 18th Century England." A=415hZ.

Charles Burney, infamous music historian of the time, specifically named five Italian cellists as responsible for bringing the violoncello “into favour” and making the British “nice judges of that instrument:” Giacobbe Cervetto, Joseph dall’Abaco, Salvatore Lanzetti, Pasqualino de Marzis, and Andrea Caporale, three of whom (Cervetto, Pasqualino and Caporale) served together as Handel’s violoncello section at the Royal Academy of Music. The principal cellist was Caporale, a position which he held for 12 years, and the solo cello part in the opera Deidamia was written for him. Burney remarked:

“In 1735, CAPORALE, the celebrated performer on the violoncello, arrived in England; and though no deep musician, nor gifted with a very powerful hand, he was always heard with great partiality, from the almost single merit, of a full, sweet, and vocal tone.”

Caporale likely played a 5-string violoncello based on the repertoire he would have performed, his compositions, and iconography depicting most likely him at the time. For this performance of Sonata No. 3, we have a 4-string piccolo violoncello at our disposal.

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