Nicola Porpora - Sonata XII di Violino e Basso

"Nicolò (or Nicola) Antonio Porpora remains today one of the least explored and recognised of the great 18th-century Italian composers. The son of a bookseller, born inNaples in 1686, he studied with Gaetano Greco at the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo. In 1708 he made his Neapolitan debut as an opera composer with 'Agrippina'. Employed from 1711 to 1725 by Philip, Prince of Hessen-Darmstadt, head of the Imperial army in the kingdom of Naples, in 1713 he also entered the service of the Portuguese ambassador in Naples, and with the Lusitanian court he kept excellent relations throughout his career. Between 1715 and 1722 he taught at the Naples Conservatory of Sant'Onofrio, where he trained some of the most renowned singers of those days, such as the famous Farinelli, Caffarelli and Regina Mingotti. In 1725 he moved to Venice, where he took up the position of chapel master at the Ospedale degli Incurabili, which he kept up to 1733. He then moved to London where he competed with Haendel until 1736. It was in the English capital that some of his most important operas were staged, like the outstanding 'Arianna a Nasso' (1733), and his first instrumental compositions were published. Having returned to Italy, he spent some time in Naples and then moved again to Venice. In 1742 he followed the Venetian ambassador to Vienna; from there he moved to Dresden where he worked from 1747 to 1751; back in Vienna, he remained in the Austrian capital for seven years, and had among his pupils Franz Joseph Haydn. In 1760 he made his final return to Naples, where he lived in considerable poverty until his death (1768).

"Porpora was not endowed with an easy character, but had a literary culture uncommon for a composer of his days, and became famous not only as an opera composer but also as a singing teacher. He wrote some sixty operas, very few of which have enjoyed philologically credible revivals in modern times. While Porpora's style has the imprint of his Neapolitan training, it also shows the influence of the composer's cosmopolitan experiences and of his being personally acquainted with the works of composers of the Venetian and German schools. His instrumental output is numerically scanty but qualitatively excellent and it includes, besides a Concerto for flute and one for cello, the authenticity of which has recently been under debate, the 'Sonatas for two cellos and two violins with b.c.' (1745), the '12 Sonatas for violin and b.c.', and few other minor compositions.

"The 'Sonate XII di Violino, e Basso / Dedicate / A S.A.R. La Principessa Elettorale di Sassonia / Maria Antonia Walburga / di Baviera / da / Niccolò Porpora / Maestro di Cappella di S.M. il Re di Polonia' ('12 Sonatas for violin and bass, dedicated to H.R.H. Maria Antonia of Bavaria, Electoral Princess of Saxony, by Niccolò Porpora, chapel master of H.M. the King of Poland'), as the original title reads, were published in Vienna in 1754. The beautiful edition, superbly printed and engraved, includes a short dedication to the Princess of Saxony, commissioned by Porpora to his friend Pietro Metastasio, in which he expresses the criteria behind his composing the 12 sonatas. Writes Porpora/Metastasio: 'I have endeavoured to bring peace among the most educated nations of Europe, in constant debate as far as their musical preferences of old over modern, Italian over French music. You will note that in the first six (particularly in those where I made special use of the three genera: diatonic, enharmonic and chromatic), written in polyphonic fashion and in strict observance of the rules, there is however reason for the most eager followers of the ornate modern style to be delighted: and that, on the other hand, the severe custodians of the most rigid traditional style will find nothing to complain about in the lively and capricious blend of old and modern, Italian and French, characterising the other six.'

"The 12 sonatas therefore were meant as a sort of 'Goûts Réunis', as a sum of international significance - not by chance published in Vienna, imperial capital -, of all aesthetics and styles of instrumental music developed in Europe in that period.

"With their noble grandeur and retrospective quality, the Neapolitan composer's 12 Sonatas constitute one of the last and most significant expressions of Baroque music, which the galant style would soon push into oblivion in the name of a spontaneity and ease of composition that a great exponent of the old school such as Porpora would probably have regarded with ill-concealed contempt. In the same years another great musician, Johann Sebastian Bach, was turning his back to contemporary trends, taking refuge in the abstractedness of his last speculative compositions, such as 'The Art of Fugue' and 'The Musical Offering'. A liaison to the style of the day is, in any case, present in the 12 Sonatas; however it is filtered by a professional conscience that was illdisposed to come to too obvious terms with the allurement of 'ease' and 'pleasantness', traits of a style that, in the space of a few years, would have made his violin Sonatas appear completely out of fashion.

"The first six works, written in a severe and archaic fashion, are all structured in four sections, after the Church sonata, featuring ample and elaborate fugues as second movements. These fugues - which would be transcribed for piano by Muzio Clementi several years later - reveal the mature Porpora's profound knowledge of counterpoint and of violin technique (in 1754 the composer was sixty-eight), and require extraordinary skill of the performer. The first Sonata of this group, in A Major, is the only one that features an opening 'Prelude (Grave)'; its final 'Allegro' in 12/8 time is written in the form of a 'Gigue'. The second Sonata opens with a 'Sostenuto' and a very complex 'Fugue', followed by an 'Aria Cantabile' that witnesses to Porpora's experience as an operatic composer. Sonata No. 6, in C Major, contains the most complex fugue of the entire collection of 12, the one in which Porpora made use of the three genera - diatonic, enharmonic and chromatic - mentioned above. In all six works the soloist's technical skills are put to the test by the repeated use of double stops and by instrumental writing that is often awkward, privileging musical content to mere bravura display.

"The subsequent six sonatas, lighter and relatively more modern in character, are technically easier and modelled after the 'Chamber sonata'. Only one out of the six (Sonata No. 9 in E Major) features the more modern structure in three movements instead of four. Here the tone is less severe and the technical passages less exacting; there are even a few occasional openings to the galant style (final 'Allegri' of Sonatas Nos. 7 and 8, and 'Andantino' of Sonata No. 9), though they remain set into a composed formal context. All of this corresponds to music writing that is less spontaneous than that of the previous group of six, as was rightly remarked by Francesco Degrada in his essay on Porpora's instrumental output. There is no lack, however, of fine and original pages, as for example: the first 'Allegro' of Sonata No. 7 in F Major; the 'Lento' of Sonata No. 9; the melancholic and pensive 'Lento assai' of Sonata No. 10; the very lively 'Presto' of Sonata No. 11; or the intense and vibrant 'Sostenuto' of Sonata No. 12. Significant, finally, is Porpora's habit of linking the various movements thematically to each another, which is particularly evident in Sonatas Nos. 7, 8, 9 and 11." (Danilo Prefumo, tr. Daniela Pilarz. From the liner notes.)

Performers: Giovanni Guglielmo, Pietro Bosna, Andrea Coen

1.1. Sonata I In A Major: I. Preludo (Grave)

1.2. Sonata I In A Major: II. Fuga

1.3. Sonata I In A Major: III. Adagio

1.4. Sonata I In A Major: IV. Allegro

1.5. Sonata II In G Major: I. Sostenuto - Fuga

1.6. Sonata II In G Major: II. Aria Cantabile

1.7. Sonata II In G Major: III. Allegro

1.8. Sonata III In D Major: I. Largo - Fuga

1.9. Sonata III In D Major: II. Andantino

1.10. Sonata III In D Major: III. Vivace

1.11. Sonata IV In B-Flat Major: I. Adagio

1.12. Sonata IV In B-Flat Major: II. Fuga

1.13. Sonata IV In B-Flat Major: III. Adagio

1.14. Sonata IV In B-Flat Major: IV. Allegretto

1.15. Sonata V In G Minor: I. Adagio

1.16. Sonata V In G Minor: II. Fuga

1.17. Sonata V In G Minor: III. Adagio

1.18. Sonata V In G Minor: IV. Allegro

1.19. Sonata VI In C Major: I. Adagio

1.20. Sonata VI In C Major: II. Fuga

1.21. Sonata VI In C Major: III. Aria

1.22. Sonata VI In C Major: IV. Allegro

2.1. Sonata VII In F Major: I. Cantabile

2.2. Sonata VII In F Major: II. Vivace

2.3. Sonata VII In F Major: III. Lento

2.4. Sonata VII In F Major: IV. Allegro

2.5. Sonata VIII In C Major: I. Adagio

2.6. Sonata VIII In C Major: II. Allegretto

2.7. Sonata VIII In C Major: III. Adagio

2.8. Sonata VIII In C Major: IV. Allegro

2.9. Sonata IX In E Major: I. Andantino

2.10. Sonata IX In E Major: II. Lento

2.11. Sonata IX In E Major: III. Allegro

2.12. Sonata X In A Major: I. Cantabile

2.13. Sonata X In A Major: II. Allegro

2.14. Sonata X In A Major: III. Lento

2.15. Sonata X In A Major: IV. Allegro

2.16. Sonata XI In D Major: I. Moderato

2.17. Sonata XI In D Major: II. Presto

2.18. Sonata XI In D Major: III. Lento

2.19. Sonata XI In D Major: IV. Allegro

2.20. Sonata XII In D Minor: I. Sostenuto

2.21. Sonata XII In D Minor: II. Vivace

2.22. Sonata XII In D Minor: III. Lento

2.23. Sonata XII In D Minor: IV. Allegro

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