diumenge, 18 de juliol del 2021

PERTI, Giacomo Antonio (1661-1756) - Messa detta 'La Lambertina' (1736)

Giovanni Antonio Canal 'Canaletto' (1697-1768) - Coronation of the Doge on the Scala dei Giganti


Giacomo Antonio Perti (1661-1756) - Messa detta 'La Lambertina' (1736)
Performers: Arion Choir; CoIIegio GhisIieri; GiuIio Prandi (conductor)

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Italian composer. At the age of nine he began to study music in Bologna with his uncle Lorenzo Perti and with Rocco Laurenti, from whom he learnt the rudiments of organ playing. He started to study singing in 1670 and the year after he took up humanistic studies with the Jesuits at S Lucia. In 1675 he began the study of counterpoint with his uncle and he later studied with Petronio Franceschini. In 1678 his first music to be performed, a mass, was given in S Tomaso al Mercato; two other works, a motet and a Magnificat (both for eight voices), date from that year. In 1679 he wrote his first operatic music – the third act of Atide – and the oratorio S Serafia. In 1680 he wrote a Mass in D with two trumpets (claimed by Martini to be the first of its kind), which was performed in S Sigismondo. In 1681 he was admitted as composer to the Accademia Filarmonica, where he was principe in 1687, 1693, 1697, 1705 and 1719, when he was made ‘diffinitore perpetuo’. Several months later he went to Parma for further contrapuntal studies with Giuseppe Corso (called Celano). Here, as is clear from a six-year correspondence with Celano, he decisively formed his church music style, especially that of the concerted masses and psalms of the 1680s and 90s. In 1688 he published his first opus, Cantate morali e spirituali, dedicating it to the Emperor Leopold I, who eventually rewarded him with a precious chain of gold. In the following year he was in Venice, probably for the production of his opera La Rosaura, and from there he applied for the vacant position of vicemaestro di cappella of S Petronio. He was unsuccessful, possibly because of the influence of G.P. Colonna, the maestro di cappella (during the famous dispute over the consecutive 5ths of Corelli, Perti had sided with Corelli against Colonna). 

Perti was chosen to succeed his uncle Lorenzo as maestro di cappella of the cathedral of S Pietro in 1690. In 1696 he was called from there to be maestro di cappella of S Petronio, where he spent the rest of his life, except for a few short journeys to Florence, Rome (1703 and 1747) and Naples (1703). Simultaneously he held similar posts at S Domenico (1704-55, G.M. Alberti deputizing for him from 1734) and the Madonna di Galliera (1706-50). According to Martini he was offered a position at the court of the Emperor Leopold I in 1697 in succession to Antonio Draghi, but there is no other record of this. Because of financial difficulties at S Petronio, Perti began his career there without a fixed group of musicians. Until February 1701 musicians were hired only for the required festive occasions. With the restoration of the cappella musicale, however, the group was re-established with 24 regular musicians. It was enlarged for festive occasions to as many as 153 in 1718 and 1719. In 1723 the regular group numbered 36, the highest number during Perti’s term. Perti enjoyed considerable fame and favour with several important personages, including Ferdinando III de’ Medici, for whom he wrote church music and operas, which were staged at Pratolino, and the Emperor Charles VI, to whom he dedicated his op.2. In 1740 the emperor made him a royal councillor. His correspondence reveals a long-standing rapport with the Duchess Aurora Sanseverino of Piedimonte d’Alife, who was a member of a Bolognese family; he regularly sent compositions to her for use at her court. His correspondence also indicates that he was held in high regard by Fux, Caldara, Pasquini, Corelli and other influential musicians. Padre Martini held him in the highest esteem and included six examples of his contrapuntal music in his Esemplare ossia Saggio fondamentale pratico di contrappunto (1774–5). Among Perti’s students were Torelli, Gabrielli, Pistocchi, Aldrovandini, P.P. Laurenti, G.B. Martini and F.O. Manfredini.

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