Sammartini: Symphonies and Overtures - Orch. CMC, Roberto Gini

Giovanni Battista Sammartini
Symphonies and Overtures
Orchestra da Camera Milano Classica, Roberto Gini
Dynamic CDS 414

Josef Myslivecek was supposed to have said that in Sammartini's symphonies he had found the model for Haydn's symphonic output. Haydn's answer (kind of like Brahms's less than candid remark about the influence of Schumann on his music): there is no influence. Haydn went further and reportedly called Sammartini a note-spinner and charlatan. Concerning Myslivacek's statement, Haydn was almost certainly influenced by the older composer, but to claim that Sammartini was the source for Haydn's symphonies is a stretch. As to Haydn's further comment, well, that seems a gratuitous slap, but then composers were certainly more outspoken in Haydn's time. (Think of some of the withering comments that Mozart shared with his father and others about rival musicians such as Clementi.)

In any event, Sammartini was widely admired in his day, but his music fell into oblivion shortly after his death in 1775. Following a twentieth-century rediscovery of his output, scholars have concluded that the composer is one of the most important of early symphonists, shepherding the form from its roots in the Italian overture and concerto grosso to a fully formed sonata structure by the 1750s. The liner notes to the current recording call him the father of the symphony, a monicker that is sometimes emptily applied to Haydn. It probably fits Sammartini far better, even if it would be more accurate to say the symphony had several influential uncles that set it on the path to eventual greatness, and Sammartini was clearly one.

The most ambitious work on the current disc, J-C 52, comes from Sammartini's middle period (ending around 1758) during which he made his most important contributions to music. It is scored for strings, two horns, and two oboes. Both the horns and oboes have independent and, by 1750s standards, colorful melodic lines. The symphony is of ample proportions and boasts good, assertive melodies and an extensive development of the same in the first movement, plus a nicely plaintive slow movement. The finale in the form of a minuet, standard in Sammartini's symphonies, is typical of the early symphony, in which the last movement had yet to emerge as a true capstone rather than a diverting coda. That would take several decades and the maturation of Mozart's and Haydn's symphonic style.

J-C 21 and J-C 26 come from Sammartini's late period and show the hallmarks of the compositional techniques mentioned above in discussing J-C 52. J-C 21 has a driving first movement, an extensive solo for violin in the second movement. About J-C 26, the liner notes say that it is "characterized by a wealth of themes of contrasting character, though not always successfully combined." And indeed, the first movement slips from one theme to another with abrupt transitions or no transitions at all. Dizzying but interesting too.

The symphony has a melancholy slow movement with the odd marking Allegrino and an Allegrissimo finale of rollicking energy. There is, however, little of the suavity of J-C 52 here. Like the first movement, the last is jumpy, seemingly hard put to stay with a single idea long. Listening to this symphony, you can understand some of Haydn's criticism of Sammartini, yet the wild energy has its appeals too. This is certainly music of individuality and not that of a mere "note-spinner."

The performances by the Milan Classical Chamber Orchestra, playing on modern instruments, are stylish and catch Sammartini's robust enthusiasm, as well as the inwardness of the best of his slow movements. One nice thing about the recording is that violins are divided left and right, so you can follow the independent writing for the second violins; J-C 46, for strings alone, and the first movement of J-C 21 are especially interesting in this respect. The important oboe and horn parts are well played and recorded too. This is a good and varied introduction to Sammartini's symphonic output.

M.C. Passarella, Amazon customer