"After having attended the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gest' Cristo, Nicola Porpora (1686-1768), one of the first teachers of singing of the Neapolitan school, debuted with Agrippina at the Palazzo Reale of Naples in 1708; from 1711 to 1725 he was Kapellmeister (maestro di cappella) of the Prince of Hessen-Darmstadt — who was temporarily in Naples with the Austrian army — and composed the operas 'Flavio Anicio Olibrio' (1711) and 'Basilio re d'oriente' (1713), then 'Arianna e Teseo' (1714) and 'Temistocle' (1718) for Vienna, the serenades 'Angelica' (1720) and 'Gli orti esperidi' (1721). From 1715 to 1721 he was teacher of singing and composition at Conservatorio di Sant'Onofrio in Naples. In Rome, 'Berenice regina d'Egitto' (1718) — composed by Porpora and Domenico Scarlatti, 'Eumene' (1721), 'Adelaide' (1723) and 'Didone Abbandonata' (1725) were performed. In Venice, he worked as a teacher in the Ospedale degli incurabili until 1733, when he accepted to move to London in order to lead an opera company (Opera of the Nobility) which debuted with 'Arianna in Nasso' (1733). After a short period spent between Venice and Naples, he moved to Dresda for 'Filandro' (1747), an opera composed for the birthday of Maria Antonia, princess of Baviera. His career was constantly vexed by a ruthless competition: on the Italian scenes his competitors were Leo and Vinci, Handel in London, Hasse in Dresda; the latter later achieved the role of Oberkapellmeister in the capital of Saxony, which forced Porpora to move to Vienna until 1758, when he moved back to Naples where he had a teaching post at Sant'Onofrio. Amongst his students, he had some of the most renowned evirati singers (emasculated singers), such as Caffarelli and Farinelli (later, in 1750, Porpora also became Haydn's teacher, who had previously been his assistant).
"Surely, Porpora did not become famous because of his didactic production, but because of his vast catalogue of vocal music, both operatic and chamber music; however the reception of his solfeges — both in printed editions (in 1858, almost one hundred years after his death, Porpora's 'Elements of Singing' was released in London) and in direct adoption by several singers — makes him even more remarkable; moreover, he is considered a real founder of schools, in the same way as Chopin and Liszt were for piano during the Romanticism.
"His mastery in vocal teaching also reflects on the not copious, but still refined instrumental production, whose roots are to be found in the influential style imposed by Arcangelo Corelli in Rome, where the latter would lead an orchestra composed by well-known cellists (for instance, Giovan Lorenzo Lulier, Giovanni Bononcini, Filippo Amadei), who might not be famous for the Sonatas or the Concertos, but they surely are for the Cantatas.
"Giovanni Battista Costanzi (Rome 1704-1778), composer and cello virtuoso, made his technique available to the author, in order for the notation to be suitable for his instrument. Therefore, both Porpora's violin and cello are explicitly 'singers,' more strongly than they usually are in baroque music — where they are oriented to emulating the vox humana — due to the fact that in Porpora's operas they sing as celebrities of the theatre scene, not as models of an abstract voice. The part of the first cello is particularly peculiar to Chamber Symphonies and of Sonatas for two violins and two cellos. The agile and melodious virtuosity of the first cello is affected by Porpora's habit of listening to Neapolitan cellists, such as Giovanni Carlo Cailo, Rocco Greco and, most importantly, the young Francischello Alborea and Francesco Supriano (the latter created an innovative method which contains several varieties of musical figures used by Porpora). In order to further verify the relationship between voice and cello, it is useful to take into consideration an interesting case of Cantata by Porpora himself ('Or sl m'avveggio, oh Amore'), which contains a part for concertante cello that duets with the soprano and uses the same variety of musical figures as the Sonatas.
"Listening to Porpora's Sonatas, rarely performed or even recorded, contributes to document the rich Neapolitan cellist scene which consists of not only the operas composed by the virtuous artists themselves, but also of the cantatas and serenades with one or two obbligati cellos and concertos for cello (both cases are operas by Leonardo Leo). This music, neglected for a long time, has the triple role of increasing the knowledge about authors who are usually mentioned only in cases of Opera Houses, completing the linguistic overview which aims at explaining the virtuous appearance of this instrument during the first half of the Eighteenth Century (previously present only in Vivaldi and Bach's operas, who also knew the Neapolitan music), and showing the basis on which the galante and the classic cellos (that of the renowned concertos of Franz Josef Haydn) are founded." (Carlo Fiore, tr. Giuseppe Leone. From the liner notes.)
Performers: Adriano Maria Fazio, Anna Camporini, Katarzyna Solecka, Pedro Alcacer, Lorenzo Profita
1. Sonata No. 1 In C Major: I. Amoroso
2. Sonata No. 1 In C Major: II. Allegro
3. Sonata No. 1 In C Major: III. Tempo Giusto
4. Sonata No. 1 In C Major: IV. Allegro
5. Sonata No. 2 In G Minor: I. Affettuoso
6. Sonata No. 2 In G Minor: II. Allegro
7. Sonata No. 2 In G Minor: III. Adagio
8. Sonata No. 2 In G Minor: IV. Allegro
9. Sonata No. 3 In G Major: I. Adagio
10. Sonata No. 3 In G Major: II. Allegro
11. Sonata No. 3 In G Major: III. Adagio Staccato
12. Sonata No. 3 In G Major: IV. Allegro
13. Sonata No. 4 In B Major: I. Adagio E Staccato
14. Sonata No. 4 In B Major: II. Allegro
15. Sonata No. 4 In B Major: III. Adagio
16. Sonata No. 4 In B Major: IV. Allegro Staccato
17. Sonata No. 5 In C Minor: I. Adagio
18. Sonata No. 5 In C Minor: II. Allegro
19. Sonata No. 5 In C Minor: III. Adagio
20. Sonata No. 5 In C Minor: IV. Allegro
21. Sonata No. 6 In G Major: I. Adagio
22. Sonata No. 6 In G Major: II. Allegro
23. Sonata No. 6 In G Major: III. Largo
24. Sonata No. 6 In G Major: IV. Allegro Staccato
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