Thirty years after the world premiere recording, Claudio Ronco concludes his research on Salvatore Lanzetti’s 12 Sonatas, Opus 1, performed here by Ronco and Emanuela Vozza, both on the baroque cello.

Salvatore Lanzetti was born in Naples around 1710 and died perhaps in Turin around 1780. A pupil of the Conservatory of S. Maria di Loreto in Naples, he was a cellist and composer active first in Lucca, where he played with Francesco M. Veracini, and then at Turin court in 1727/28, and from 1760 to his death. He was in London between 1939 and 1954 or 1956, and also played in Sicily, France and Germany. He is considered one of the first great cello virtuosos. He published five collections of sonatas for cello and basso continuo (but op.2 is nothing more than a London edition with five sonatas taken from the 12 of op.1 plus an original sixth, reduced, remixed and transcribed also for the transverse flute, and op.3 could be considered the non-numbered edition containing the other 6 of op.1, or a work lost, but recognized by the author), and a short method for fingering: “Principes ou l’application de Violoncelle par tous les Tons de la manière la plus facile [sic]”, published in Amsterdam in 1774 as Opus 4. Other sonatas remain handwritten.

Claudio Ronco is a skilled basso continuo player and a soloist of virtuoso repertoire. His twenty years of experience performing with the greatest groups and directors specialised in 16th- to 18th-century music, assure him a great stylistical flexibility, together with an extraordinary instrumental virtuosity, so as to distinguish his performances for the freshness of his inventions, spontaneity and elegance.