Church Symphonies op.1 (Modena 1699)
Symphony II
1) adagio
2) allegro
3) moderato
4) allegro
Arias from the opera Engelberta (Milan, 1708)
5) Worthy of me you are not
6) If I am dead to your faith
7) Allor che geme e piange
8) Un bel sembiante ama spesso
9) E’ il mio cor tra vari affetti
10)Ardea happy lover
11)Selvagge amenità
Sinfonie da chiesa op.1 (Modena 1699)
Sinfonia III
12) largo
13) allegro
14) adagio
15) grave
16) allegro
Symphony V
17) largo
18) allegro
19) adagio
20) allegro
21) grave
22) allegro
Symphony VI
23) adagio
24) largo assai
25) allegro
Symphony VIII
26) largo
27) a cappella
28) grave
29) presto
Symphony XI
30) largo
31) allegro
32) grave
33) allegro
Andrea Stefano Fiorè was born in Milan in 1686; although forgotten today, he was a true enfant prodige of Italian music. A pupil of, among others, Arcangelo Corelli in Rome, he earned the admiration and esteem of celebrated contemporaries such as Quantz (the celebrated theorist and flautist) and Benedetto Marcello, who cited the composer’s “admirable mastery” and “vast talent.” Fiorè was especially active at the court of the Savoy family (the “Symphonies,” which the composer wrote at the age of thirteen, “daughters more of genius than of knowledge,” are in fact “consagrated to the royal highness of Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy and Prince of Piedmont”). As was the custom of the time, he wrote, in addition to a corpus of sacred music dedicated to the Royal Savoy Chapel, much vocal music, including, for the theater, the Opera: Engelberta, performed at the Regio Ducal Teatro in Milan in 1708, and from which, in this recording, the most significant arias are presented, again as a world premiere, in Angelo Manzotti’s passionate and superb interpretation.
