Ferronati: Concerts and Motets for Santa Maria Maggiore

Lodovico Ferronati è one of those so-called minor figures who enriched the musical landscape of the 18th century without, however, their fame spreading after their death. One would, however, be gravely mistaken to consider this oblivion as just, because it was precisely these minor composers who created and maintained the cultural undergrowth that populated cities throughout Europe and characterised the artistic life of their territory in an important way. Lodovico Ferronati, Paduan by birth but Bergamo by adoption, tied his name to the city of Orobica, serving in the prestigious Cappella Musicale of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore for more than 60 years, first as a violinist and later as Maestro di Cappella. One would expect that such a long militancy would guarantee a conspicuous discovery of his compositions, but unfortunately this is not the case: most of his sacred compositions have been lost, while a collection of sonatas for violin and basso continuo published in 1710 in Venice and a series of violin concertos preserved in important libraries in Dresden and Vienna have survived to the present day, testifying to how the quality of his compositions was taken into account and allowed his music to spread beyond the borders of his home.
The figure of Ferronati was that of a person with considerable cultural depth and held in esteem for both his musical abilities and his passion for art. Combining his long-lasting activity within the Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and the collection of paintings that accompanied him throughout his life, it is easy to imagine the influence that Ferronati may have had on Bergamo's cultural scene during the 18th century.

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This concert, in which three pieces from the forthcoming monographic disc are previewed, combines his unpublished music with the compositions of three masters symbolically chosen in relation to Ferronati's places: the prodigious Bergamasque Locatelli (a probable pupil of Ferronati himself and the most brilliant violinist talent of the entire 18th century), the immortal Vivaldi (the one who most embodies the stylistic features of Venetian baroque), and the bridge-figure of Tomaso Albinoni, who was born and raised in the Veneto region but was originally from Orobica.