Francesco Durante: Concerto II for strings in G minor: The Four Nations Ensemble

The Four Nations Ensemble Live performance May 30, 2024 Church of the Holy Trinity, New York City The Artists Olivier Brault & Evan Few, violin Nicole Divall, viola Loretta O'Sullivan, cello Anne Trout, violone Scott Pauley, lute Andrew Appel, harpsichord Francesco Durante, composer of so many beautiful works, holds his central role in history due in great part to his exercises in partamento, a technique or fashion of teaching composition with unifying and binding materials. It maybe that each master teacher at the conservatories had unique teaching methods but commonly held musical values and concepts of beauty unified Naples. By far the most remarkable and celebrated student of Durante was Pergolesi around whom a series of stories and myths made him the most beloved of composers. His short life (he died from tuberculosis at 26) seemed to give him sufficient time to write masterworks in the older opera seria style, motets including the Stabat Mater, and most important, his comic intermezzo, La Serva Padrona. Neapolitan accomplishment and influence did not die young but with its 16th century roots in the conservatory system it flourished in sonata, concerto, motet, and opera from Alessandro Scarlatti through Vincenzo Bellini. Durante's unfamiliar works are pinnacles of quality and beauty from this school of composition.