Sinfonia a Quattro in C Major, Giegling 33
performed Nov 14, 2004

Far too little is known about Italian composer and violinist Giuseppe Torelli (1685-1709). He may have received his early musical training from Giuliano Massaroti in Verona. Between 1681 and 1684 Torelli moved to Bologna, where he became a member of the Accademia filarmonica on June 27, 1684, and around 1692 was elevated to the rank of compositore. He studied composition with Perti and played viola in the regular cappella musicale at San Petronio from September 28, 1686 to January 1696. He may have gone to Ansbach and Berlin before becoming maestro di concerto to the Margrave of Brandenburg at Ansbach in 1698. By December 1699 he was in Vienna, and in 1701 he joined the recently reestablished cappella at San Petronio, where he remained until his death. Torelli's output as a composer consists primarily of chamber and orchestral works, the majority for strings. He also wrote a large number of unpublished sinfonias, concertos, and sonatas for trumpet(s) and strings.

Torelli's Sinfonia a Quattro in C Major, Giegling 33, is a fine example of the instrumental music that flourished at San Petronio, which boasted excellent acoustics and two pipe organs facing each other. Trumpets, oboes, and strings had been added to San Petrionio's musical activities even before Torelli's arrival, but it was Torelli who fully exploited grand antiphonal effects with brilliant works featuring trumpets and oboes. The Sinfonia a Quattro is arguably the most adventurous and it foreshadowed the three-movement structure of the pre-classical symphony while heralding the arrival of the symphonic age.

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