José de Nebra (1702-1768) is well known as a composer of opera, but only a few scattered keyboard pieces of his circulated until a substantial manuscript was discovered recently in a cathedral archive in Zaragoza. Nebra’s manuscript was published last year in an excellent edition by Luis Antonio González Marín (Bologna: Ut Orpheus Edizioni, 2021). A working manuscript rather than a fair copy, Nebra’s collection consists of thirty-one pieces grouped in eight loose suites, only two of which are titled “sinfonía.” This third suite (or sinfonia) contains three pieces that are untitled, but the first is very reminiscent of an Allemande, and the last is even more obviously a Gigue. The second piece consists of four sections, with cadences that hint at its possibly being a Rondeau in the style of Rameau, whose music Nebra may have studied. For this recording, we have chosen to begin with this “Rondeau” as a prelude to the Allemande and Gigue that follow. To our knowledge these pieces have not been recorded before.
