Giovanni Battista Sammartini (c. 1700-1775); ITA

Giovanni Battista Sammartini (c. 1700–1775) was an Italian composer, organist, and teacher born in Milan. He spent nearly his entire career there, serving churches and aristocratic institutions while becoming one of the city’s most prominent musicians. His reputation spread well beyond Italy, and his instrumental music circulated widely across Europe. He was especially important during the transition from the late Baroque to the early Classical style.

Sammartini wrote operas, sacred music, chamber works, concertos, and a large number of symphonies. His early symphonies helped transform the brief Italian operatic overture into an independent concert form, giving greater structural weight and expressive range to its movements. Works such as his numerous Sinfonias display clear phrase structures, energetic rhythms, and increasingly thematic organization. His influence can be heard in the emerging Classical symphonic tradition that culminated later in Haydn and Mozart.

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Read biography at allmusic.com.