Marcello Gatti, Cosimo Prontera & La Confraternita de’ Musici - Leonardo Leo: La Musica per Stanza (2004)

Leonardo Leo (1694-1744) was a Neapolitan composer whom academics have sometimes pushed as the missing link between Pergolesi and the full flowering of the early Classical style. Niccolò Jommelli and Gluck's rival Piccinni were among his students, and his own operas feature smooth, lightly accompanied arias that do seem to look forward to the spirit of Gluck and even Mozart. Several recordings of the early 2000s have unearthed his almost-forgotten instrumental music, with liner notes chiding listeners (in the words of the present disc) "so entirely enamored with Vivaldi...that they have ignored music derived from other circles or styles." The "La musica per stanza" subtitle of this disc means Music for a Room, or chamber music, and it is very much a mixed bag. The Concerto for 4 violins in D major that opens the disc might seem too large for most rooms, and there are also two flute concertos. In between are 14 so-called toccatas for keyboard, which are really more like Domenico Scarlatti's harpsichord sonatas, and an unusual little Marcia per due violini, which was a forerunner of the divertimento-type music of Mozart and Haydn. None of it is going to cut into Vivaldi sales, and despite the annotator's insistence that Leo's instrumental music ought to be examined for its progressive tendencies along with his operas, much of it is of a rather conservative tinge. The fugal movement of the four-violin concerto looks back to Corelli, and the flute concertos are pleasant dinnertime music but don't have the textural surprises of the still little-understood late Vivaldi. Most interesting are the keyboard toccatas, which at least shed light on a little-known segment of Italian Baroque music. All that said, this is a well-played collection of pieces for those seeking a better acquaintance with the music of the period. La Confraternita de' Musici and its harpsichordist and leader Cosimo Prontera are not as well known as the various northern European ensembles that have revived interest in early eighteenth century performance practices, but they deliver lively readings with a nice feel for the newly airy tone that was seeping into music in every Italian city at this time. Prontera, with lots of harpsichord competition out there, brings zest to the Gigue and melancholy to the several slow toccatas. This recording can be recommended to anyone with a specific interest in the era, but for the curious, Ensemble 415's G.B. & G. Sammartini: Concerti & Sinfonie makes a better place to start with the post-Vivaldi generation of Italian music.