Marcello became known as the foremost Venetian composer of music for keyboard of his generation. It is possible to hear the influence of the young Domenico Scarlatti’s keyboard style in these harpsichord sonatas as well as pronounced French and galant tendencies.

There is no reliable and comprehensive study of Marcello and many details of his life and work remain shrouded in mystery. Trying to determine, therefore, the authenticity of the available sources for these harpsichord works proved problematic. It was concluded that the most authoritative consist primarily of five manuscripts (another probable two are lost, and the five surviving manuscripts are now in the libraries of as many European cities).

The manuscript adopted as the basis for this recording, apart from being accepted as coming from the location closest to the composer’s centre of activity, namely Venice, is also the one which bears the closest resemblance to the model of a collection that might have been prepared for publication at the time Marcello is thought to have composed these works.

Roberto Loreggian studied organ and composition at the Conservatory of Rovigo before studying harpsichord – first at the Conservatory of Castelfranco, Veneto and then at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. In addition to his busy career as a soloist, he is much in demand as a continuo player in both chamber ensembles and orchestras. Roberto Loreggian is particularly interested in the great harpsichord heritage of seventeenth and eighteenth-century Italy. This is his first recording for Chandos.