Cambini: Sinfonie concertanti e a grand'orchestra

World premiere recording.

The Italian composer Cambini was immensely popular with Parisian audiences in the 1770s and 1780s. He had a predilection for the symphonie concertante, a form enabling him to link his gift for captivating melodies with a flair for delightful combinations of sonorities, while his symphonies show a seriousness of intent and a restless sense of drama reminiscent of the Sturm und Drang movement.

Cambini: Sei Trii concertanti Op. 26

It is quite likely that Giuseppe Cambini influenced the Parisian milieu with his typically Italian originality. He is regarded as a pre-Romantic composer, not only because he anticipated the era of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Chopin, but above all because of his search for expression. This is the “Italian-style Romanticism” that Boccherini had forestalled in his isolation at the Spanish court.

Cambini wrote 110 quintets, 149 string quartets, and a varied quantity of other works now generally neglected in spite of their contemporary popularity.