Sarti Giuseppe (Giuseppe Sarti)

Sarti Giuseppe (Giuseppe Sarti)

Main article: Music in Russia in the XVIII century

RTI Group (Sarti) Giuseppe (baptized 1.12.1729, Faenza - 28.7.1802, Berlin), Italian composer, conductor.

Biography

Composer Giuseppe Sarti was born on December 1, 1729.

Giuseppe received his primary musical education at a church and singing school. Sarti later studied in Padua with F. A. Valotti, in Bologna with Padre J. B. Martini.

By the age of 13, Sarti took up the position of organist in his hometown.

Since 1752, he began working in the opera house. His first opera "Pompey in Armenia" was received with great enthusiasm, and the second, written for Venice - "The Shepherd King" - brought the composer real triumph and glory.

1753: Court bandmaster of Frederick V in Copenhagen

In 1753-68, 1770-75 in Copenhagen, from 1755 the court bandmaster Frederick V.

1779: Kapellmeister of Milan Cathedral

Since 1779, the bandmaster (maestro di capella) of Milan Cathedral.

In Italy he wrote the operas that glorified him, the opera series enjoyed special success:

• "Medont, king of Epirus" (1777),
• "Achilles on Sciros" (1779; both Florence),
• "Julius Sabinus" (1781, Venice),
• opera buffa "Rustic jealousy" (1776, Venice),
• "When the two quarrel, the third wins" (1782, Milan; V. A. Mozart included an excerpt from it in the table music of the opera Don Juan)^[1].

In Vienna in the 1780s. Sarti's operas were more popular than Mozart's compositions.

1784: Court bandmaster of Catherine II in St. Petersburg

Catherine the Great invited Sarti on the recommendation of Paisiello and to replace him primarily to compose operas. However, upon arrival in St. Petersburg (1784), Sarti falls into the orbit of influence of Prince Grigory Potemkin, who immediately saw in the Italian a figure that corresponded to the scale of the plans of the creator of Novorossiya.

In 1784-87 he led the Court Orchestra in St. Petersburg.

1785: Russian oratorios "Lord, call to you" and "Have mercy on me, God"

In April 1785, the first Russian oratorios of Sarti sounded in the Potemkin Palace in St. Petersburg (before the construction of the Tauride Palace, such was the Anichkov Palace).

In 1785, the composer composed, by order of Count Potemkin, the oratorio "Lord, Appeals to You" (aka "May God Rise" and the so-called "Russian Oratorio") for soloists, 2 choirs and orchestra, including a horn orchestra. The oratorio consists of three passages selected by Potemkin himself, taken from the Good Friday liturgy, Psalm 67 - May God resurrect - and Psalm 150.

In the orchestration of this magnificent oratorio, the composer first used the Russian horn orchestra - a unique ensemble in which each musician performs only one tone.

The recording of the work was made by the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra and the Prague Philharmonic Choir in 1992 during a concert in Perugia, in St. Augustine's Church. The horn orchestra was wittily replaced by an organ. Conductor Vaclav Smetacek.

• I. Overture (Allegro - adagio) (6:09)
• II. Largetto (3:24)
• III. Andantino (2:20)
• IV. Intrada (1:15)
• V. Fuga (7:22)
• VI. Moderato (Larghetto) (8:01)
• VII. Finale - Allegro (5:15)

The second "Russian oratorio" is called "Pardon me, God," also written in 1785. The entry in the original in Russian was carried out in 2024 in St. Petersburg. For more information about the disc, see Pardon me, God - Giuseppe Sarti.

It is logical to assume that, thanks to the modesty of the performing staff, it was this oratorio of Sarti that sounded more often than others during the author's life , wrote musician and researcher Andrei Penyugin. Contemporaries often mention concerts with the performance of spiritual cantatas in Potemkin's Novorossiysk stakes (Kremenchug, Elisavetgrad and even the camp near Ochakov), which were conducted by Sarti. Perhaps it was these concerts that caused the popularity of the oratorio in its Catholic Latin version - under Potemkin, European diplomats and military were constantly present. With them, the oratorio processed by the author could get to Austria, Italy, Prussia and other countries (European libraries store about 60 manuscript copies of the composition with Latin text, including arrangements for large compositions).

1786: Operas-series "Armida and Rinaldo" and "Castor and Pollux"

In 1786, the opera-series "Armida and Rinaldo," written by Sarti for the singers L. Todi and L. Markezi who arrived in St. Petersburg, opened the Hermitage Theater; in the same year, the opera series Castor and Pollux was staged with great success.

1787: Transfer to service to Potemkin

In 1787, the contract with Sarti, bandmaster of Catherine II, was terminated by the empress. Sarti goes to the omnipotent Grigory Potemkin-Tavrichesky, accompanies him and Catherine on a famous journey to the Crimea, again wins the empress's heart with the musical design of her meeting with the Austrian emperor Joseph in Kherson, after which he remains in charge of Potemkin's musical economy - his home chapel, horn orchestra, choir, arrangement of musical evenings and other music-related undertakings of His Grace Prince.

As part of the court of Potemkin, Sartia lived in southern Russia, took part in the creation of the Yekaterinoslav Academy of Music (1787, actually worked in Kremenchug; in 1792 Sarti was officially called its director).

As the writer S.N. Glinka wrote in his Notes, "in his kind Sartius was as romantic as Potemkin: both of them thought that a soaring mind was acting past the rules that cordoned off human thought." Sarti actively began work in a new position. Famous musicians were involved in teaching at the first Russian conservatory (its actual seat was the city of Kremenchug): F. Brankino (oboe), A. Delfino (cello), F. Dal'Okka (harpsichord and solfeggio), etc.

1788: Cantata "We Praise You God"

Sarti manifests himself both as a natural organizer and as a diligent author. The famous cantata "We praise you God" for an unheard of number - three hundred! - singers and musicians, church bells and cannons, was written at the end of 1788 about the capture of Ochakov by the Russian army.

The long siege, which to many seemed a sign of the military weakness of the Russian army, ended in a lightning assault. For connoisseurs of Russian history, the capture of Ochakov became one of the symbols of the political and military genius of Grigory Potemkin.

Participation in Sarti's cantata cannons delayed her performance until spring. For the first time it sounded in the open air in Iasi, and I liked it so much that it was decided to perform it in connection with each victory. On August 30, the cantata sounded in St. Petersburg, in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. There is information that it was performed in Moscow in 1791. Two of its musical versions survived - in Russian and Latin words, the second is compositionally more complex.

1790: Music of the 5th action of the "Initial Management of Oleg"

In the same years, Sarti wrote the music of the 5th action of Oleg's Initial Administration (a "historical performance" on the text of Catherine II): 4 choirs to verses by M.V. Lomonosov and a melodrama with a choir in the spirit of other Greek. tragedies to the inserted scenes from "Alkesta" by Euripides (St. Petersburg, 1790), etc.

1791: Music for the Potemkin Holiday in the Tauride Palace

In winter, hostilities almost froze, and around Christmas Grigory Potemkin arrived in St. Petersburg, with him Sarti. On April 28, 1791, the famous, repeatedly described Potemkin holiday took place in the Tauride Palace in honor of Catherine III. Sarti was responsible for the musical side of the holiday, and again succeeded. That evening, Potemkin realized that he would not defeat 24-year-old handsome Platon Zubov. He departed for the troops. It is characteristic that Sarti this time did not go with Potemkin, but remained in St. Petersburg and immediately became close to none other than Zubov.

In 1791 he was supposedly in the service of Count N.P. Sheremetev.

1792: Director of the Yekaterinoslav Academy after her move to St. Petersburg

The city of Yekaterinoslav (modern Dnepropetrovsk) was founded by decree of Catherine in 1786. The same decree established a music academy in the new city. It is logical to think that the academy could not have arisen on a wasteland that had barely begun to be built up. However, in February 1787, its first chapter, composer Ivan Khandoshkin, was already appointed. After six years, Sarti becomes the director, and Handoshkin is demoted to inspector. It is clear that sometimes a leader is appointed to an institution that has not yet been created - but not an inspector! - when there is still nothing to inspect. The mystery is strengthened by the following: Sarti's biographer Joseph Fetis mentions a concert given to him for the empress by the forces of his Yekaterinoslav conservators. On the other hand, in the decree, where Sarti is appointed director of the Yekaterinoslav Academy, it was ordered to allocate him an apartment with firewood in St. Petersburg. How, supplied with firewood in St. Petersburg, he led the educational process for one and a half thousand versts, it is unclear. According to the musicologist Fesechko, while Potemkin was alive, in some embryonic form the academy in Yekaterinoslav existed, and after his death moved to St. Petersburg - it was then that Sarti became its director. In any case, the release of money for it stopped only with the accession to the throne of Paul I.

Since 1792, again in St. Petersburg, Sarti conducted his oratorio "Glory to God in the Highest," written on the occasion of the Peace of Yas 1791/92 (1792) and dedicated to Catherine II; the performance was accompanied by a bell ringing, cannonade and fireworks.

1793: Bandmaster at the court of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich

Since 1793, the bandmaster at the court of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich taught the music of his daughters. He created many compositions for Orthodox and Catholic services (including Requiem for the funeral service for Louis XVI in St. Petersburg 26.3.1793), for palace holidays, from 1798 - a number of new operas and French. opera "Indian Family in England" (Stone Theater, 1799; aria "I will frolic with cute" became a popular "Russian song," later arranged by O. A. Kozlovsky to sing with a clavier). The author of ballets, chamber-instrumental music, etc.

1802: Death in Berlin

Sarti died in 1802 in Berlin on his way to his homeland in Italy.

Creative heritage

Oratorios

This is how Sarti's fate develops that he is given orders to compose large compositions in the oratorio-cantata genre. These were cantatas or even, as they are more precisely called, oratorios, "May God Rise," "Glory to God in the Highest" and Te Deum - "We Praise God to You," which were associated either with the victories of the Russian army over Turkey or some other victories, or with memorable dates of the imperial family - ascension to the throne-coronation, or the birth of another heir.

In general, it turns out that Sarti created about 27 oratorios for 18 years of his stay in Russia. These compositions are grandiose, large-scale, monumental - such as "Lord, appeals to You" (sometimes this oratorio is called differently - "May God Rise"). They also demanded a double composition of the choir and a double composition of the orchestra, a horn orchestra, which, as we know from sources, sometimes reached the dor of 70 performers. In addition, pyrotechnics specialists were also involved here, because there was a fireworks display, there were cannonades and there was a bell ringing.

Among the oratorios were more chamber ones, for example, "Have mercy on me, God."

Church music

Sarti also wrote commissioned church music. Moreover, as well as previous composers, like Galuppi, like Traetta, he did not know and did not learn the Russian language, he wrote according to the interlinear. It is known that he has Orthodox liturgies and also many separate chants, including:

• eleven spiritual concertos, of which four were published and two are kept in manuscript;
• eight one-hour chants, which were also published or stored in manuscripts.

In total, if we take Sarti's church music to Orthodox texts, that is, in the Orthodox tradition, there were also works of about thirty. Of these, by the mid-1990s, only Sarti's Cherubim was performed by a male quartet led by Igor Voronov.

Operas

"Comforted Lovers," "Imaginary Philosophers" and "Imaginary Heirs"

Sarti's career St. Petersburg began with an opera buffa. To Europe The audience got acquainted with some comic operas created back in, long before the composer arrived in. Russia The first St. Petersburg performance, staged specifically for the 1784 season, was the opera "Comforted Lovers." Following her, the audience enjoyed the music of Imaginary Philosophers and Imaginary Heirs.

"Idalida," "Armida and Rinaldo" and "Castor and Pollux"

Sarti's operas immediately attracted the attention of the public, starting with the first opera series "Idalida," presented in St. Petersburg at the Hermitage Theater in 1785.

Then the recognition of music lovers was awarded to "Armida and Rinaldo," specially created for the famous singers of the Italian court troupe L. R. Todi and L. Marchesi.

On the anniversary of the coronation of Catherine II, the series "Castor" was held at the Hermitage Theater and Pollux. "

Choirs for "Oleg's Initial Management"

Sarti's only touch on the opera genre over the years of his service with Potemkin was the choirs to the play "Oleg's Initial Management." It was always believed that Oleg was conceived by Catherine II (namely she was the author of the play) as a stage edification for his eldest grandson Alexander on the topic: how to govern Russia. But it is even more obvious that the play reflects the Empress's "Greek Project." She wanted neither much nor little, how to recreate the Greek Empire (a smaller edition of the Byzantine) and place her middle grandson Constantine on her throne in Constantinople. The play included the founding of Moscow (250 years earlier than the real date), a trip to Kyiv, the capture of Tsargrad, the famous shield nailed to its gates, athletic games at the hippodrome in honor of Oleg the winner, the oath of the defeated emperor Leon in eternal peace. Oleg's triumph ended with the presentation of the eurypid "Alceste."

The entire "Tsargrad" part is accompanied by choirs. The first choir is a march glorifying Russia (in 36 years it will be played at the coronation of Nicholas the First, the youngest of Catherine's grandchildren, and now we understand why), the second in tender tones celebrates the beneficences of eternal peace, but the third, characteristically, expresses the idea that wars protect peoples from decay. This is done very skillfully. Musical means depict a stagnant swamp. According to musicologist Ivanov-Boretsky, enharmonic modulation from F major in E minor and unison to the words disgusting reptiles are extremely expressive. Subsequent choirs refer to a passage from "Alceste" and are sustained in the Greek spirit. Outside the context of time, it seems strange why the recognized maestro Sarti was not entrusted with composing all the music for Oleg, why the work went to three composers, including the rather weak Cannobbio. In context, everything is clear. Oleg's presentation was a thick political allusion addressed to the diplomatic corps, especially the Austrian ambassador Esztergazi, and was timed to a strictly defined date. One composer may not have had time.

Along with Carlo Cannobbio, co-author of Giuseppe Sarti, was Vasily Alekseevich Pashkevich, a Russian composer. For Oleg's Initial Management, Vasily Pashkevich composed women's wedding choirs.

The "initial management of Oleg" was delivered in October 1790 with unprecedented luxury. In addition to court actors and singers, musicians of the Preobrazhensky regiment participated, and the rank and file were extras. On November 1, Catherine wrote to Potemkin in Bender:

"I send a thousand red and a gift to Sartiy with this courier for music to Oleg. Today Oleg is represented for the third time in the city (i.e. in the city, and not in the court theater), and he has the greatest success, and by Sunday all the places are occupied. The performance is how this has not yet happened^[2]

"Andromeda," "Aeneas in Lazio," "Indian Family in England"

In the 1790s, during the reign of Pavel Petrovich, Sarti reached the pinnacle of his fame, continuing to write operas for various ceremonial celebrations. On November 4, 1798, Andromeda was staged on the stage of the Hermitage Theater.

On the occasion of the marriage of Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna with Archduke Joseph of Austria in Gatchina on October 19, 1799, they showed Aeneas in Lazio, where the famous castrate A. M. V. Testore sang.

In the same 1799, Sarti turned to the genre of comic opera, writing "Indian Family in England," which adequately completed the list of musical comedies, demonstrating Sarti's brilliant talent in this genre.

Creation of the Petersburg tuning fork

Having measured with the help of physical experience the structure of the St. Petersburg Court Orchestra (which was much higher than the tuning fork of J. Shore), Sarti in 1796 proposed a corresponding standard of construction - the so-called St. Petersburg tuning fork ("la" 1st octave - 436 Hz); it was introduced in Russia and was used until 1885.

Pupils

Sarti occupies one of the honorable places in Russian musical culture of the late 18th century. as the creator of vocal and instrumental compositions and works for the a cappella choir (including Church Slavonic texts), which influenced his alleged students - A. L. Vedel, L. S. Gurilev, S. I. Davydov, S. A. Degtyarev, D. N. Kashin, P. I. Turchaninov. Maybe personally one of them was engaged in Sarti, such as Degtyarev and Kashin. By the way, three of the named Russian composers - Degtyarev, Gurilev and Kashin - were serfs of Sheremetyev, Orlov and Bibikov, from which we can conclude that Sarti visited these houses, visited these estates, estates and was very comfortable with the owners.

It is known that in Italy Sarti of the students had only Luigi Cherubini. Sarti's work became a model of professionalism for the young composer school of Russia; he formed a monumental orchestral style, which became characteristic of Russian music at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Scientific musician, master of counterpoint, Sarti studied other Greek. fret system, was interested in Russian under-voice polyphony.

Records

• Have mercy on me, God - Giuseppe Sarti (St. Petersburg Baroque Ensemble, 2024)

Шаблон:XVIII Century Music CD

Notes