Leonardo Leo

Leo was born in San Vito degli Schiavoni (current San Vito dei Normanni, province of Brindisi), then part of the Kingdom of Naples.
He became a student at the Conservatorio della Pietà dei Turchini at Naples in 1703, and was a pupil first of Francesco Provenzale and later of Nicola Fago. It has been supposed that he was a pupil of Pitoni and Alessandro Scarlatti, but he could not possibly have studied with either of these composers, although he was undoubtedly influenced by their compositions. His earliest known work was a sacred drama, L'infedelta abbattuta, performed by his fellow-students in 1712.

Everything is done with affection and great character as well as technical finesse. Such music demands innate timing, and these musicians, under Antonio Florio's direction, have it.

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.

Pergolesi’s two settings of the Salve Regina are rather different one from another. That in C minor is darker, more passionate, the string writing (not least at the very beginning) richly expressive; indeed the first of its six movements, is a largo of exquisite beauty, a perfect illustration of a particular kind of baroque beauty, intensely expressive and seeming to hold back a freedom of lyricism which is effectively liberated only in the brief andante which follows. Some of the greatest baroque effects are created by interplay between restraint and excess. This is one of them.

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 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 Montecassino Monastery recently hosted the score of this comic opera by Leonardo Leo, one of the leading Neapolitan composers of the 18th century, who introduced new stylistic elements to the genre. Cirillo shows in a very exciting way in his direction how nothing actually happens in this opera - apart from a very subtle play of the relationships between the seven protagonists. As with Marivaux, this is about the social differences when the middle class turns to the servants and vice versa, and as in a Feydeauschen comedy, they wander on stage (and leave again) to spy, to portray themselves, or to court someone until everyone is eaten away by doubt.

Leonardo Leo (1694 - 1744) was among the leading Neapolitan composers of his day. He attended the Conservatorio Santa Maria della Pieta dei Turchini in Naples and remained in the city until his death. Leo was also a prominent teacher and held positions at the Conservatorio S Maria della Pietà del Turchini and the Conservatorio S Onofrio. Leo composed mainly operas, oratorios and cantatas with very little instrumental music. Chief among his instrumental works are the six cello concertos on this disc, composed in 1737 - 38. They were presumable commissioned by the Duke of Maddaloni, who was an amateur cello player.

Neapolitan composer Leonardo Leo (1694-1744) was one of the forerunners of the Classical style, a composer primarily of opera. His experiments with a lighter, freer concept of melody in his comic operas spilled over into instrumental works like these cello composers of 1737 and 1738, which have a flavor all their own. They owe little to the concertos of Vivaldi, which must have been well known even as far south as Naples. They are in four (or five) movements rather than the conventional three, and their opening Andante movements, especially, show signs of the breaking-up of terraced Baroque structure that would lead eventually to the shifting motion dynamics of Classicism. Most striking is the role of the cello, which was not a common solo instrument at the time.

Neapolitan composer Leonardo Leo (1694-1744) was one of the forerunners of the Classical style, a composer primarily of opera. His experiments with a lighter, freer concept of melody in his comic operas spilled over into instrumental works like these cello composers of 1737 and 1738, which have a flavor all their own. They owe little to the concertos of Vivaldi, which must have been well known even as far south as Naples.