It won't do to claim the cello concertos of Leonardo Leo (1694-1744) as unknown masterpieces. But if you enjoy hearing a composer struggle with musical materials in an era of transition (might be relevant to today's scene, eh?), you'll find these interesting. Leo was posthumously praised by both Charles Burney and E.T.A. Hoffmann, but today he is known vaguely, if at all, as one of the forerunners of Classical-era opera. These six concertos were written in 1737 and 1738 for Leo's patron Domenico Marzio Caraffa, the Duke of ...
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It won't do to claim the cello concertos of Leonardo Leo (1694-1744) as unknown masterpieces. But if you enjoy hearing a composer struggle with musical materials in an era of transition (might be relevant to today's scene, eh?), you'll find these interesting. Leo was posthumously praised by both Charles Burney and E.T.A. Hoffmann, but today he is known vaguely, if at all, as one of the forerunners of Classical-era opera. These six concertos were written in 1737 and 1738 for Leo's patron Domenico Marzio Caraffa, the Duke of Maddaloni, and they were cutting-edge stuff at the time -- partly, at least. Sometimes this music sounds 30 years older than it is, sometimes 30 years ahead of its time. Leo sticks (except in the five-movement Concerto No. 2, which includes a fugue) to the four-movement sonata da chiesa pattern of the early eighteenth century, and his way of thinking is remarkably contrapuntal for someone whose reputation has been as a melodist. The fast-tempo second movements of several of...
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