SAMMARTINI: Il Pianto degli Angeli della

Ferrari, Daniele;
Ravizza, Filippo;
Capriccio Italiano Ensemble;
Mapelli, Silvia;
Soraluze, Ainhoa;
Tiboni, Giorgio

8.557432

The cantata Il pianto degli Angeli della Pace was first performed in the church of San Fedele in Milan in 1751. It features three rôles, the Angel of the Alliance, a contralto, the Angel of the Testament, a soprano, and the Angel of Grace, a tenor. After an extensive orchestral introduction, the action begins with a trio, entitled Amare lagrime (Bitter Tears). This is in the form of a refrain that returns three times in the course of the composition, giving vent to the mournful feelings which prevail, sometimes with desperate and sometimes with melancholy accents, throughout the whole composition. Each character sings a da capo aria, preceded by a recitative. The plot is not based upon an episode of the Gospel, but is an edifying dialogue about the history of salvation and its fulfilment through Jesus Christ. The angels’ weeping for the passion and death of the Saviour, in which the whole of creation joins, constitutes, in effect, a leading motif linking all the episodes of the cantata. The instrumentation, traditional at the time, calls for strings, oboes, horns, and basso continuo. Sammartini’s Symphony J-C 26 is part of a large corpus of more than seventy works in this genre. Most of these compositions consist of three contrasting movements and were intended to entertain Milan’s enthusiastic audience either in enclosed or open spaces. From our point of view they form a kind of field for experimentation, showing a stylistic evolution towards the modern symphony and sonata form. All Sammartini’s symphonies display the composer’s brilliant temperament. A constant flow of melodic and rhythmic ideas, occasionally abrupt changes in the harmony, and highly varied formal structures reveal a constant striving after an ever more daring instrumental language.

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

Naxos

08-11-2004

747313243228