HMR Project: History of Music & Modern Recording

Giuseppe Sammartini / Giovanni Sammartini

Giovanni Sammartini

Painting by Domenico Riccardi 1775

Born in Milan on 6 Jan 1695, Giuseppe Baldassare Sammartini was an oboist and elder brother to Giovanni Battista Sammartini. The Sammartini brothers were born to the oboist, Alexis Saint-Martin, and the Sammartini name had also been rendered San Martini or Saint Martini. Both Giuseppe and Giovanni wrote in the galant style at the summit of the baroque period shadowing the shift into classical. One of the ways that they differed is that Giuseppe spent the majority of his career in London while Giovanni never left Milan. As well, Giuseppe is known chiefly for his concertos, Giovanni for his numerous sinfonias. Both publishing often, Giuseppe saw print in London for more works than only his 13 Opuses (: intended for the printing press) listed at IMSLP. Wikipedia Deutsch has Giovanni publishing nine Opuses in London and Paris. I've not identified them, but he likely saw print beyond that since he also wrote dramatic works and his oeuvre is more extensive than Giuseppe's. Giovanni's compositions for the Church, however, would not have been commercially published.

As mentioned, like his French contemporary, Daquin, Giuseppe ventured beyond formal baroque into the galant, and like Scarlatti his sonatas were influential to the blossoming of the classical. Galant is late baroque become freer and lighter than what had become a too formal complexity since its emergence in Italy about 1600. At that time early baroque had been concerned to simplify polyphony gone wild. Opera came with it as song was at once pursued more in the manner of the ancient Greeks. Even as baroque had extinguished the long reign of the Renaissance, now it was itself to be replaced by the classical. Giuseppe was reasonably popular during his time, became a more well-regarded composer since then, but isn't greatly known in modern times. Most of his oeuvre surviving, Giuseppe wrote 24 sonatas for flute and bass, 30 trios for flute or violin, 24 concerti grossi, 4 keyboard concertos, 1 oboe concerto, 16 overtures, and some cello sonatas and flute duets.

Earliest records find Giuseppe at St. Celso's in Milan 1717 as an oboist, likely flute and recorder as well. Three years later he was playing the instrument at the Teatro Regio Ducal. In 1729 he headed for Brussels, then London, where the publishing of his '12 Trio Sonatas' had preceded him since 1727. Giuseppe played oboe for Handel at the King's Theatre before employment by Prince Frederick of Wales in 1736 where he remained until his death in November of 1750. Frederick died on 31 March the next year.

Prince Frederick of Wales

Giuseppe's patron 1736-50

Painting by Jacopo Amigoni 1735

Source: Wikipedia

'Trio Sonata in C minor' Op 1 No.5 of 6 from 'VI Sonate a Tre' Giuseppe Sammartini

Published 1736 by Sammartini in dedication to Prince Frederick of Wales IMSLP

Musica Maestrale directed by Hideki Yamaya:

Recorder: Miyo Aoki Oboe: Brandon Labadie Harpsichord: Jonathan Oddie

Archlute: Hideki Yamaya Cello: Max Fuller

Portland OR on 7 Nov 2015

'Sonata in G major' Op 2 No.4 of 12 from 'XII Sonate' Giuseppe Sammartini

Published c 1736 IMSLP

Stereotype Baroque Ensemble:

Recorder: Matija Chlupacek Bassoon: Balint Kovacs

Harpsichord: Andrii Slota Viola da gamba: Luke Challinor

Salzburg

'Concerto Grosso in C minor' Op 5 No.5 of 6 from 'Concerti Grossi' Giuseppe Sammartini

Published 1747 in London by John Walsh IMSLP

Capriccio Barockorchester / Dominik Kiefer

'Concerto in G minor' Op 8 No.5 of 6 from 'Six Grand Concertos for Violins in Eight Parts'

Giuseppe Sammartini

Published 1752 in London by John Walsh IMSLP

Les Muffatti / Peter Van Heyghen

Featuring Benoit Laurent at oboe

'Keyboard Concerto in A major' Giuseppe Sammartini

Op 9 No.1 of 4 from 'Giuseppe St. Martini's Concertos for the Harpsichord or Organ'

Published 1754 in London by John Walsh IMSLP

I Musici Ambrosiani / Michele Suppa

Featuring Donatella Bianchi at harpsichord

'Ouverture in F major' Giuseppe Sammartini

Op 10 No.7 of 8 from 'Eight Overtures in Seven Parts'

Published 1756 in London by John Johnson IMSLP

Les Muffatti / Peter Van Heyghen

'Sonata in G major' Giuseppe Sammartini

Op 13 No.4 of 6 from 'Six Solos for German Flute, Violin or Hautboy'

Published c 1760 in London by John Johnson IMSLP

Recorder: Maurice Steger Harpsichord: Naoki Kitaya

Viola da gamba: Lorenz Duftschmid Theorbo: Brian Feehan

Brussels 1994

Born circa 1700/1701 in Milan, Giovanni Battista Sammartini was younger brother to Giuseppe Sammartini. As mentioned, Giovanni also composed in a galant manner and was influential to classical composition to come. Giovanni wrote music for both churches and noble houses. Among his more important contributions was the development of the symphony out of trio sonata and concerto forms, rather than the overture as it usually was. More than 450 of Sammartini's works yet exist, including 70 symphonies, though not a few of his compositions are lost as well. "J-C" numbers in Giovanni Sammartini are per the 'Thematic Catalogue of the Works of Giovanni Battista Sammartini' by Newell Jenkins & Bathia Churgin (Harvard University Press / 1976). Reviews of this work were written a couple years later by Howard Brofsky and Eugene K. Wolf.

Giovanni learned music from his father as a child, but was probably in his twenties before beginning to write music. His composing career is divided into early (1724-39), middle (1740-58 including the most of his symphanies) and late (1759-74). In 1728 he became maestro di cappella at both Sant'Ambrogio and the Congregazione del Santissimo Entierro, remaining at the former the rest of his life while working for other churches as well. Christoph Willibald Gluck had lived in Milan from 1734 to 1745 during which time he is said to have studied under Giovanni from 1737 to 1741.

The list of symphonic works below descends via J-C numbers which are not chronological. Dates of composition are largely unknown excepting their period (early, middle or late).

Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio