Cimarosa: Keyboard Sonatas Vol 2 Naxos8572689 ***

Domenico Cimarosa (1749- 1801) was an opera composer, right? Yes, one of the most important writers of Italian opera before Rossini. Two of his operas have featured in the Wexford Festival, Il maestro di cappellain 1977, and Le astuzie femminiliin 1984. But he also wrote sacred music, and left more than 80 sonatas for keyboard. They're short pieces, and even when grouped in sets of three, as most included here are, the playing time typically comes in at five minutes or less. They have been rather cruelly described as being like descendants of Scarlatti's sonatas but without the genius. Italian-born, Australian- trained, London-resident pianist Victor Sangiorgio's second volume of the sonatas invests them with a deft vitality and presents the pieces as slivers of charm and grace. See url.ie/af6o