At the age of 59, after an extremely successful career in Venice and London as an opera composer, Galuppi spent three years at the court of St Petersburg as a harpsichord virtuoso. If these short concertos represent Catherine the Great’s tastes, she apparently liked showy keyboard writing. (But are the inordinately long cadenzas by Galuppi or by the very able soloist here?) Most of these eight works are pleasant miniatures of no great musical substance, from which individual movements such as the first of the C minor Concerto, the finale of the E flat and some operatic-sounding slow movements stand out; but the D major Concerto is more ambitious and more mature in thought and technique, with a sprightly finale.'