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Sammartini - Late Symphonies Vol.2     | Brilliant Classics 94019

Sammartini - Late Symphonies Vol.2

New Item

Label: Brilliant Classics

Cat No: 94019

Barcode: 5028421940199

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Release Date: 22nd March 2010

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Contents

About

Giovanni Battista Sammartini (1701-75) was born in Milan and, unlike his contemporaries, spent all his life working in his home city. He bacame the major figure in musical life in the city and devoted himself to instrumental, chamber and sacred music, composing only three stage works, which makes him one of those rare Italian composers who shunned the world of opera – Giovanni Sgambati in the 19th century is another such example.

Sammartini vies with Haydn for the title ‘father of the symphony’. He was a great innovator, and his symphonic works resulted from his experimentation with the concerto grosso and trio sonata forms of the baroque age.

His works were widely published in all the major cities of Europe, and he was on friendly terms with Gluck, who he taught from 1737-41, and Mozart, who he met during the young Austrian’s visit to Milan. His influence upon composers such as Gossec, J C Bach and Johann Stamitz was considerable.

Sadly, Sammartini’s legacy has been inextricably caught up with the fate of Milan at the end of the 18th century, and much of his music was taken to Vienna and Paris after his death by invading French forces. On top of that, much of it was destroyed during the Second World War. It was as recently as 1968 that serious research on his surviving manuscripts took place.

His late symphonies are superbly crafted, forward looking works, eschewing attention-grabbing (Mannheim) effects for graceful and complex harmonies, with elaborate rhythms.

These are world premiere recordings, on period instruments, of these highly influential works in the history of the symphony.

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