Classical Music | Ensemble Music

Tomaso Albinoni

Sinfonia a cinque in g minor  Play

Baroque Band Ensemble

Recorded on 05/24/2007, uploaded on 09/26/2010

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Sinfonia a sinque in g minor           Tomaso Albinoni

Tomaso Albinoni was the son of a well-to-do paper merchant who owned several shops in Venice as well as some landed property. His teachers are unknown, but it has been suggested that he had had some instruction from Legrenzi. Like his colleague, Benedetto Marcello, Albinoni did not seek noble or church patronage—he preferred to remain a "dilettante," providing music for his own enjoyment and that of others. Highly successful in the realm of opera, he also ran a successful school of singing (he had married a soprano, Margherita Rimondi, in 1705), although the time of this school's existence remains uncertain. Upon his father's death in 1709, he retained one paper shop, some of whose revenue went to him through the management of two younger brothers. Albinoni's music was very popular during his lifetime—it was in demand all over Europe and was ranked with that of Corelli and Vivaldi. J. S. Bach used four subjects by Albinoni for keyboard fugues (BWV 946, 950, 951, and 951 a) and was known to have used other works as material for teaching. It is interesting to note that the form of the sonata heard this evening is older in nature, being of the slow-fast-slow-fast sequence of movements, in the manner of Corelli.      David Schrader