Siciliana | Pasquale Ricci (1733-1817) | By Rien

A beautiful Siciliana from Pasquale Ricci. I have challenged myself with this one. My challenge: “take a organ with a huge reverb and try to play a high pitched baroque (this one is late baroque) piece with a fitting transparent articulation and at the same time, let it feel “relaxed, free and warm” to the listener. I used the romantic Bätz organ from the Domkerk in Utrecht. I’m satisfied. I hope you are too with this fun-to-play piece. Francesco Pasquale Ricci (1732-1817) was born on May 17 in Como, Italy. In 1759 he was appointed Maestro di capella at the Como cathedral. Ricci traveled a lot through western Europe. For a decade he stayed in the Netherlands, where he was musical director of the court chapel. To musicologists he is known as the co-author, together with Johann Christian Bach whom he had met in London, of the first method for fortepiano. Though he seemed to have been a reasonable fruitful composer, writing chamber music, symphonies as well as religious vocal works, most of his