Rarely performed 18th century keyboard music from the Piedmont region of Italy is performed here on the fortepiano by Mario Stefano Tonda.

Between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a violin school of great importance grew up in Piedmont. It started with the Somis brothers, still stylistically tied to the French tradition of Jean-Marie Leclair, and developed through the music of Gaetano Pugnani and Giovanni Battista Viotti. This new CD from Tactus presents a CD that showcases keyboard music from the region by some of the major figures of that time.

Pianist Mario Stefano Tonda was born in Turin. He has studied harpsichord with some of the greatest international soloists, including Ottavio Dantone and Kenneth Gilbert, as well as fortepiano with Malcolm Bilson. The instrument used by Tonda on this recording is a copy of a fortepiano manufactured by Austrian Anton Walter around 1805.