Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
“The guitar is an expressive harpsichord” declared the composer Claude Debussy after a concert by the Catalan guitarist, Miguel Llobet.
Composers: Benedetto Marcello, Domenico Alberti, Domenico Zipoli, Domenico Scarlatti, Domenico Cimarosa, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Gaetano Grieco, Pietro Domenico Paradies
Artist: Antonio De Innocentis (guitar)
💎 🎵 Purchase, stream or download (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Presto): brilliant-classics.lnk.to/ItalianHarpsichordistsGuitarID
🎬🎮 These tracks are available for sync licensing in videos, films, TV shows, games, advertising, and more. For licensing inquiries: info@brilliantclassicslicensing.com
The classic guitar has benefited, more than most other instruments, from arrangements of music of many genres. Renaissance and Baroque music especially suit the timbre and range of the guitar and keyboard music is ideal for playing on the guitar, often direct from the original score. Debussy’s comment may be unjust to harpsichordists, but the expressive limits of the guitar may be said to outweigh those of the harpsichord.
Girolamo Frescobaldi was born in Ferrara, one of the most musically stimulating cities in Italy at the end of the 1500s. He was organist of St Peter’s, Rome and is said to have also been a magnificent harpsichordist. His influence spread not just through Italy, but also north of the Alps.
Gaetano Greco (also Grieco) was born and worked in Naples, notably as Maestro di cappella of the Basilica in Naples from 1704-1720. He was an influential figure, numbering Domenico Scarlatti and Nicola Porpora among his pupils.
If we know the name Domenico Alberti nowadays it is probably only through the eponymous bass figuration heard in many classical and pre-classical keyboard pieces. The lively Giga, from his collection of Sonatas Op.1 gives way to a more elegant Allegro from a Sonata da camera.
As well as being a composer and a pupil of Pasquini, Domenico Zipoli trained for the priesthood as a Jesuit. He emigrated to Paraguay, where he aimed to complete his training, but died before he could be ordained.
With Bernardo Pasquini we bridge the gap between Frescobaldi and Domenico Scarlatti. Pasquini made a close study of Frescobaldi’s work, especially his early Fantasie and employed some of these ideas in his variations.
Moving forward 50 years from Pasquini, Benedetto Marcello proved to be a real polymath, with interests in politics, law and literature. He left behind a substantial number of sonatas, especially for cello and harpsichord.
Like Marcello, Domenico Cimarosa’s main musical output was vocal music, mainly operas, of which he wrote more than 80, admired by Mozart and performed by Haydn at Eszterháza. Cimarosa’s Sonatas are a refreshing leap into the early classical style, while acknowledging Domenico Scarlatti’s influence.
Domenico Scarlatti’s keyboard output, 555 sonatas, dwarfs all the other composers on this recording. The similarity in range between the harpsichord and the guitar makes transcriptions relatively easy.
Paradies was another composer whose music was valued by Mozart, as well as Clementi and Cramer, both keyboard virtuosi of the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Played with great commitment and feeling for the style by Antonio De Innocentis, who also signs for the guitar arrangements.
Tracklist:
00:00:00 Girolamo Frescobaldi: Passacaglia, F2.28
00:02:40 Girolamo Frescobaldi: Aria con variazioni detta “La Frescobalda”, F 3.32
00:08:51 Gaetano Grieco: Aria di ballo
00:10:23 Domenico Alberti: Giga (Presto) from Sonata, Op. 1 No. 4 (8) in G Minor
00:13:42 Domenico Alberti: Allegro from Sonata da camera in F Major
00:16:46 Domenico Zipoli: Suite No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 1 No. 18: I. Preludio
00:20:47 Domenico Zipoli: Suite No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 1 No. 18: II. Corrente
00:23:47 Domenico Zipoli: Suite No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 1 No. 18: III. Sarabanda
00:26:11 Domenico Zipoli: Suite No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 1 No. 18: IV. Giga
00:28:25 Bernardo Pasquini: Partita sopra l’aria della follia da Espagna
00:30:37 Benedetto Marcello: Allegro in G Major (Allegretto con grazia)
00:33:35 Benedetto Marcello: Allegro con brio from Sonata in C Major, S.704
00:37:14 Benedetto Marcello: Allegro from Sonata No. 4 SF.736°
00:40:30 Domenico Cimarosa: Sonata No. 58
00:41:54 Domenico Cimarosa: Sonata No. 53
00:45:23 Domenico Cimarosa: Sonata No. 61
00:48:23 Domenico Cimarosa: Sonata No. 47
00:51:34 Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata, K.1
00:55:02 Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata, K.78 (Giga/Minuetto)
00:57:39 Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata, K.27
01:02:11 Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata, K.159
01:05:21 Pietro Domenico Paradies: Allegro (Toccata) from Sonata No. 6 in A Major
#Harpsichord #Guitar #Italian #Italy #Organ #Scarlatti #Classical #Classics #Music #BrilliantClassics
“The guitar is an expressive harpsichord” declared the composer Claude Debussy after a concert by the Catalan guitarist, Miguel Llobet.
Composers: Benedetto Marcello, Domenico Alberti, Domenico Zipoli, Domenico Scarlatti, Domenico Cimarosa, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Gaetano Grieco, Pietro Domenico Paradies
Artist: Antonio De Innocentis (guitar)
💎 🎵 Purchase, stream or download (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, Presto): brilliant-classics.lnk.to/ItalianHarpsichordistsGuitarID
🎬🎮 These tracks are available for sync licensing in videos, films, TV shows, games, advertising, and more. For licensing inquiries: info@brilliantclassicslicensing.com
The classic guitar has benefited, more than most other instruments, from arrangements of music of many genres. Renaissance and Baroque music especially suit the timbre and range of the guitar and keyboard music is ideal for playing on the guitar, often direct from the original score. Debussy’s comment may be unjust to harpsichordists, but the expressive limits of the guitar may be said to outweigh those of the harpsichord.
Girolamo Frescobaldi was born in Ferrara, one of the most musically stimulating cities in Italy at the end of the 1500s. He was organist of St Peter’s, Rome and is said to have also been a magnificent harpsichordist. His influence spread not just through Italy, but also north of the Alps.
Gaetano Greco (also Grieco) was born and worked in Naples, notably as Maestro di cappella of the Basilica in Naples from 1704-1720. He was an influential figure, numbering Domenico Scarlatti and Nicola Porpora among his pupils.
If we know the name Domenico Alberti nowadays it is probably only through the eponymous bass figuration heard in many classical and pre-classical keyboard pieces. The lively Giga, from his collection of Sonatas Op.1 gives way to a more elegant Allegro from a Sonata da camera.
As well as being a composer and a pupil of Pasquini, Domenico Zipoli trained for the priesthood as a Jesuit. He emigrated to Paraguay, where he aimed to complete his training, but died before he could be ordained.
With Bernardo Pasquini we bridge the gap between Frescobaldi and Domenico Scarlatti. Pasquini made a close study of Frescobaldi’s work, especially his early Fantasie and employed some of these ideas in his variations.
Moving forward 50 years from Pasquini, Benedetto Marcello proved to be a real polymath, with interests in politics, law and literature. He left behind a substantial number of sonatas, especially for cello and harpsichord.
Like Marcello, Domenico Cimarosa’s main musical output was vocal music, mainly operas, of which he wrote more than 80, admired by Mozart and performed by Haydn at Eszterháza. Cimarosa’s Sonatas are a refreshing leap into the early classical style, while acknowledging Domenico Scarlatti’s influence.
Domenico Scarlatti’s keyboard output, 555 sonatas, dwarfs all the other composers on this recording. The similarity in range between the harpsichord and the guitar makes transcriptions relatively easy.
Paradies was another composer whose music was valued by Mozart, as well as Clementi and Cramer, both keyboard virtuosi of the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Played with great commitment and feeling for the style by Antonio De Innocentis, who also signs for the guitar arrangements.
Tracklist:
00:00:00 Girolamo Frescobaldi: Passacaglia, F2.28
00:02:40 Girolamo Frescobaldi: Aria con variazioni detta “La Frescobalda”, F 3.32
00:08:51 Gaetano Grieco: Aria di ballo
00:10:23 Domenico Alberti: Giga (Presto) from Sonata, Op. 1 No. 4 (8) in G Minor
00:13:42 Domenico Alberti: Allegro from Sonata da camera in F Major
00:16:46 Domenico Zipoli: Suite No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 1 No. 18: I. Preludio
00:20:47 Domenico Zipoli: Suite No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 1 No. 18: II. Corrente
00:23:47 Domenico Zipoli: Suite No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 1 No. 18: III. Sarabanda
00:26:11 Domenico Zipoli: Suite No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 1 No. 18: IV. Giga
00:28:25 Bernardo Pasquini: Partita sopra l’aria della follia da Espagna
00:30:37 Benedetto Marcello: Allegro in G Major (Allegretto con grazia)
00:33:35 Benedetto Marcello: Allegro con brio from Sonata in C Major, S.704
00:37:14 Benedetto Marcello: Allegro from Sonata No. 4 SF.736°
00:40:30 Domenico Cimarosa: Sonata No. 58
00:41:54 Domenico Cimarosa: Sonata No. 53
00:45:23 Domenico Cimarosa: Sonata No. 61
00:48:23 Domenico Cimarosa: Sonata No. 47
00:51:34 Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata, K.1
00:55:02 Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata, K.78 (Giga/Minuetto)
00:57:39 Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata, K.27
01:02:11 Domenico Scarlatti: Sonata, K.159
01:05:21 Pietro Domenico Paradies: Allegro (Toccata) from Sonata No. 6 in A Major
#Harpsichord #Guitar #Italian #Italy #Organ #Scarlatti #Classical #Classics #Music #BrilliantClassics
