Sarti Gala with Barbara Frittoli

Giuseppe Sarti (1729 – 1802) is justly considered to have been one of the finest musicians of his generation. An organist, chorus master, conductor, teacher and academic, as a composer he was an equally important figure in spiritual and opera music. Of course, he won greater glory with his approximately seventy-five works for theatre, starting with the opera Pompeo in Armenia (1752) and ending with the Gatchina staging of the anacreontic ballet Les Amours de Flore et de Zephire (1800). Sarti touched literally every theme that was current at the time, having a brilliant command of the techniques of both the Italian and the French schools. Mozart admired him and quoted a theme from his opera buffa Fra i due litiganti il terzo gode in Don Giovanni. It was Sarti’s operatic successes that led to him becoming the conductor first in Copenhagen and then in 1784 in St Petersburg where at the recommendation of the future Emperor Paul I appeared at the Court of Catherine II, taking over the post from his compatriot Giovanni Paisiello. Sarti left a distinct impression on Russian music. As well as writing and staging several Italian operas he was involved in composing music for The Beginning of Oleg’s Reign to a libretto by the Empress. At the invitation of Prince Potemkin he spent several years with his family in Ukraine, recuperating from the harsh northern climate and promoting the glory of the renowned Ukrainian school of singing. If in Italy his composition pupils were Luigi Cherubini in Russia they were Stepan Stepan Degtyaryov, Daniil Kashin and Lev Gurilev. Giuseppe Sarti was a classicist to the very marrow in his bones. His music is harmonious, balanced and positive, it is as if every bar is hinting that the structure of the world is logical and beautiful. The composer had the gift of being able to compose beautiful melodies, at times soft and sweet and at times lively and virtuoso.
It is in Sarti’s religious music that the polyphonic brilliance of the pupil of the legendary Padre Martini came to full fruition, having carefully concealed it in his operas. Of course, in spiritual works his operatic expressiveness and shades of the “gallant style” came through, but on the whole they seem more archaic than the maestro’s operas. Sarti composed a series of complete masses, and separate parts from these are often performed during Catholic services. In Russia the composer actively worked for the Orthodox Church, writing a series of liturgy and the magnificent chorus Now the Powres of Heaven among other works. He frequently wrote for two choruses and two orchestras using “stereo effects”. Sarti's Magnificat and Gloria were composed probably between 1779 and 1781, when Sarti was chapel master at the Duomo in Milan. Milan was the cradle of ancient Ambrosian chant and everyone who worked in the city was used to combining ancient chants with contemporary composition techniques.
Anna Bulycheva

This project is part of the Year of Russia – Italy
run with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation