Peter Pasqualini de Marzi: Six Sonatas for the Cetra or Kitara

This remastered edition of Peter Pasqualini de Marzi’s Six Sonatas for the Cetra or Kitara takes me back to my life in Rome, studying with Andrea, discovering the delicate nature of the 18th-century cittern, or cetra, and trying to come to terms with what Andrea calls “a different kind of virtuosity”, one that favors color, dynamics and expression over velocity, a position very much in line with the Galant aesthetic. We recorded live, direct to disk, consciously trying to recreate the intimate nature of a performance in the home, perhaps, as here, by master and student, for the enjoyment of the players themselves and for whomever else was in the room.