Luca Mosca accompanies us on a discovery of the Sonatas by Benedetto Marcello, some of which feature in the Festival programme. In the musical language in use in Venice in the early eighteenth century, the term sonata was a generic indication for music for instruments only, with very different characteristics from one collection to another. Only later did the sonata also begin to define a compositional form. Nevertheless, Marcello’s instrumental music represents one of the most creative and interesting manifestations of a highly organised and innovative musical culture able to express artistic results of the highest level which were admired and copied throughout Europe. Mosca, thanks to his skills as a brilliant communicator and accom- plished pianist, examines, explains and illustrates the characteristics of the language of Benedetto Marcello, one of the protagonists of the instrumental renaissance of Venetian musical culture.
