Giovanni Battista Sammartini
is considered the father of the symphony,
who influenced none other than Joseph
Haydn, even though the latter always
denied it. But that could be explained
by the fact that Sammartini was a somewhat
controversial character, and his music
wasn't generally appreciated.
He was born the son
of a French oboist, who had moved to
Italy, probably in Milan, where he remained
all his life. He became an oboist and
organist, and was soon playing an important
role in musical life in Milan. He started
as an oboist in the orchestra of the
Regio Ducal Teatro, together with his
elder brother Giuseppe. By 1726 he was
already called 'very famous' and at
the end of his life he was 'maestro
di cappella' of at least 8 churches.
He composed symphonies, concertos, chamber
music, operas and also religious works,
among them five cantatas for the Congregazione
del SS Entierro, which had its headquarters
at the Jesuit church of S Fedele. During
Lent the congregation met at Friday
evenings for a non-liturgical service,
which included a sermon and a cantata
on an Italian text. The cantatas recorded
here were first performed in 1751.
The structure of both
cantatas is identical: they start with
an 'introduzione', and then three pairs
of recitatives and arias follow, for
alto, tenor and soprano respectively.
After another short recitative the cantatas
end with a 'coro' for the three voices.
The orchestra consists of strings and
basso continuo, with additional oboes
and horns. The alto aria in the first
cantata has an obbligato part for the
cello.
Although the texts
are related to the Passion of Christ
they are not based on the gospels. The
first is about the sorrow of Mary about
the death of her Son: "My poor heart!
Thus, amidst such suffering and pain
was my Child to be taken from me?" Mary,
Cleophas's wife, and Jesus's disciple
John try to comfort her.
The second cantata
deals with the sorrow of Peter about
his denial of Jesus: "O my destiny,
forever unhappy unless my tears arouse
Heaven's pity!" He is comforted by John
and James. The last words of the last
recitative reveal the moral intent of
cantatas like this one: "And your failings
will be an eternal warning, putting
fear into the just."
The article on Sammartini
in The New Grove says: "It is in Sammartini's
religious works that many of his most
dramatic and sophisticated pages are
found, as well as a grandeur of effect
absent from his other works." The cantatas
on this disc certainly support this
view. There is no lack of drama in the
arias, and the recitatives contain "chromatic
and dissonant harmonies", as the article
says. It is a shame that the performance
disguises these qualities.
The playing - on modern
instruments - is pretty old-fashioned,
and flat, with an almost complete lack
of dynamic accents. There is too little
expression of the text here, both from
the orchestra and from the singers.
The recitatives are sung in strict tempo,
without the freedom composers expected
performers to take. There is no differentiation
between the strong and weak syllables
in phrases. And the use of quite a lot
of vibrato, both by the singers and
the players, covers up the harmonic
peculiarities. The cadenzas with which
the arias ends are not very imaginative,
and sometimes stylistically dubious,
for example in the first aria of the
first cantata, where the contralto goes
far beyond the range of her part.
As hardly any recordings
of Sammartini's vocal works exist the
mediocre quality of this recording is
a big disappointment. One can only hope
that it will at least direct the attention
to Sammartini as a composer of expressive
vocal music which deserves more attention
than it has received so far.
Johan van Veen
Capriccio Italiano Ensemble/Daniele Ferrari
