Symph Ensferrari - SAMMARTINI: Gerusalemme sconoscente ingrata / Confitebor / Symphonies [CD]

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Giovanni Battista Sammartini (1700/01-1775) Cantata: Gerusalemme sconoscente ingrata, J-C 122 • Confitebor • Symphonies J-C 25/56  A pillar of eighteenth-century Milanese musical life, Giovanni Battista Sammartini was a versatile and prolific composer. He is often credited as the leading Italian symphonist, almost as if to compensate for having been eclipsed in reputation over the years by his Northern European contemporaries, but he played a wider rôle than that in the history of music and accordingly deserves greater appreciation than he currently enjoys. He was never tied to a single patron or institution and was able to take full advantage of the varied cultural life of his native city, making his name known in its academies, outdoor concerts and opera houses, as well as in teaching circles. Many people, including some very talented amateurs, were involved in instrumental and orchestral music-making, a fact that encouraged Sammartini to write a huge number of structurally and stylistically varied symphonies, all underpinned by his absolute mastery of compositional technique. This is evident in the Symphony in E flat major, J-C 25, and the Symphony in G minor, J-C 56, featured on the present recording. The first of the two comprises a pair of fast movements in ternary form, while the second has three movements, in the usual fast-slow-fast sequence, and both demonstrate a fine use of contrast, grafted on to a fluid, uninterrupted rhythmical background. The first movement of J-C 25also appears in the Lenten cantata Maria addolorata (Naxos 8.557431), where the horns are replaced by oboes.Sammartini was, however, more than a symphonist. Twenty or so sacred works survive as evidence of his years as a hard-working maestro di cappella, including one Mass and eight Lenten cantatas. These were written for performance by a 'congregazione', a Catholic association of (primarily) lay people, funded by members' subscriptions, worshipping on the margins of liturgical practice and devoted to religious and charitable works.Sammartini maintained a close relationship for nearly fifty years (from 1724 to 1773) with the Congregation of the Most Holy Sepulchre of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Solitude of the Most Holy Sorrowing Virgin, which met at the Jesuit Church of San Fedele. It had been founded by the Spanish governor of Lombardy in 1633 and over the years counted Spaniards, Austrians and Italians among its members, depending on which group was ruling Milan at the time. Lent was the central focus of the Congregation's religious year, and each Friday during that period a form of worship above and beyond the usual liturgy took place. This included a sermon and a cantata in Italian, which were written for the occasion by the maestro di cappella and which, given their content and style, could be classed as sacred theatrical pieces.The eight surviving Lenten cantatas (five for 1751 and three for 1759), n

Introduction (Sinfonia)

Recitative I: And Who Amoung You Brings Me News Of My Lord Jesus?

Aria: The Cruel, Rapacious Wolf

Recitative II: O Treacherous People!

Aria: Long Live The Son Of David

Recitative III: I Myself Saw How, Mid The Pitiless Throng

Aria: The Crown And Robe

Recitative IV: Not Even That Could Touch Those Hard, Perfidious Hearts

Finale (Chorus): Faithless, Senseless Zion

Confitebor, J-C B-5

Presto

Allegro

Allegro

Andante

Presto