Teacher, composer, musical theorist, scholar of mathematics and physical sciences, Father Giovanni Battista Martini (1706-1784) was an encyclopaedic mind in the noblest sense of the term. He was without doubt the greatest and highest figure of authority in European music in the Eighteenth century. [...] With the title Sonate per l'organo e il cembalo, dedicated to Monsigneur Gian Carlo Molinari, this collection was issued by the Della Volpe press in 1747. There are six sonatas, and Father Martini specifies which instruments they are for; the odd number sonatas for the harpsichord, and the even number sonatas for the organ. [...] There is no very rigorous counterpoint; Martini’s style is pleasing and reflects refined courtly taste. There is an unhampered search for pleasant tones, animated rhythms and sinuous and short melody lines requiring great agility from the performer, but the sonatas never fall into mere artifice or virtuoso for its own sake.

Francesco Ermini Polacci