Concertos for the organ, op. 9

1-3 Concerto Secondo (F major)
Allegro - Andante - Allegro

4-7 Concerto Primo (A major)
Andante spiritoso - Allegro assai - Andante - Allegro assai

8 Sonata in C major [G. B. Sammartini]

9-12 Concerto Quarto (Bb major)
Allegro - Sostenuto - Andante - Allegro

13-15 Concerto Terzo (G major)
Spiritoso - Andante - Allegro

16 Sonata in G major, “con trombe di registro” [G. B. Sammartini]

Born in Milan in 1695, Giuseppe Sammartini was the elder brother of Giovanni Battista, today a better-known composer. He spent most of his life in London where he was in the service of the Prince of Wales and where all of his known works were published. Altogether integrated in the wide and important circle of London-based Italian composers and performers, he was a close collaborator of Handel, whose works he knew intimately. The four Concertos for the Organ, opus 9, which Fabio Bonizzoni has recorded here for the first time, show the greatness of Sammartini’s oeuvre: he undoubtedly deserves an important place in the musical panorama of the 18th century, not as an epigone or an imitator, but as an original and singular creator, worthy of all our admiration and respect.

The sonority of the fantastic Zavarise organ, built in 1802 following the norms of an 18th-century aesthetic, contributes in a definitive way to the recreation of this surprising music. In an exquisitely illustrated digipak, Glossa presents the work of Bartolomeo Bimbi, who excelled in the painting of exuberant still lifes of fruits. Although he lived somewhat earlier than the Sammartini brothers, his paintings serve as a perfect illustration for the freshness and inventiveness of this music.