Giuseppe Sammartini

Sammartini was the most important musician in Milan for half a century and can arguably lay greater claim than Haydn to the title of “father of the symphony”. The son of an oboist, he was born in 1700 or 1701, and from his twenties became a master at many of the city’s musical institutions, both sacred and secular, including the Royal Ducal Theatre, the predecessor of La Scala. His music spans the twilight of the Baroque period and the birth of the Classical (he died in 1775) and includes four operas and some dramatic, expressive sacred music. It is as a symphonist, however, that he is most remarkable. Over a 40-year period, he composed numerous symphonies that borrowed the three-movement form of the north Italian concerto with lyrical, slow central movements and hunting or dance-style finales. These achieved fame far beyond Italy, their transparent instrumentation and rhythmic vitality setting the standard for composers in Vienna, Mannheim and other major European centres.