Sammartini: Sacred Cantatas

On this recording both cantatas follow a similar design, being scored for soprano, alto (originally castratos), and tenor soloists accompanied by a standard "pre-Classical" orchestra of pairs of oboes and horns, strings, and continuo. The structure, too, is identical, with an opening Sinfonia followed by a semi-dramatized alternation of secco recitative and aria, with a concluding coro or trio, neither of which, pace Naxos's notes, is predominantly contrapuntal. In didactic purpose and in form they are what would have been termed oratorios in the previous century. The style of the writing is advanced, already very much of the pre-Classical kind that would influence the young Mozart when he visited Italy 20 years later (Sammartini was apparently friendly toward Leopold and Wolfgang when they visited Milan). In the overtures there is something of the "spirit and fire" that Burney found "peculiar to the author," while Sammartini's harmonies are a constant source of interest, frequently taking quite bold paths. With one exception, that of the Virgin Mary in Maria addolorata ("The sorrowing Mary"), which is cast in repeated AB form with a concluding stretto, the arias are large-scale da capo structures.