Lodovico Ferronati and the Cappella of S. Maria Maggiore:
Virtuosity and Spirituality in Eighteenth-Century Bergamo
by Thomas Chigioni
Lodovico Ferronati, born in the final decades of the seventeenth century and deceased in 1767, occupies an unquestionably prominent place within the musical tradition of Bergamo; yet his oeuvre remains, for the most part, unexplored. Of Paduan origin but by adoption a citizen of Bergamo, he devoted more than sixty years of service to the Cappella Musicale of the Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore, first as leader of the violins and subsequently as Maestro di Cappella. Despite such a long and distinguished career, the greater part of his output—particularly his sacred music—has been lost. Documentary sources further attest that, alongside his musical activities, Ferronati cultivated a profound interest in the visual arts, distinguishing himself as a collector and dealer, in direct contact with such eminent painters as Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Giambattista Pittoni. This breadth of artistic sensibility made him an indispensable figure in the cultural life of the Orobic region.
The present recording stems from a desire to investigate and bring to light the work of a composer closely connected to this territory. Since 2019, a musicological enquiry centred on the study and recovery of original manuscripts has made it possible to restore to public attention a number of compositions hitherto thought lost: five concertos for violin and orchestra, and two hymns, all from the composer’s Bergamasque period and unearthed in the archives of Bergamo, Vienna and Dresden.
Ferronati’s writing bears witness to the melodic vitality and technical brilliance characteristic of the contemporary Venetian school, while retaining a personal and readily recognisable idiom. The very presence of his works in a range of European libraries attests to the international stature he attained in his own lifetime.
His violin writing follows models found in Vivaldi’s concertos—organised according to the tripartite structure typical of that model—in which orchestral ‘ritornelli’ frame solo episodes underpinned by the basso continuo. Thematic reworkings and harmonic modulations are entrusted primarily to the solo sections, while the tutti restate the ritornello motifs in related tonalities. The solo violin part, replete with double-stopping, bariolages, arpeggios and scalar passages, reveals the hand of a virtuoso performer.
The fast movements are marked by freshness and immediacy of expression; the adagios, by contrast, display a poignant lyricism, sustained by skilful harmonic control and a pronounced melodic sensitivity. The collection presents a variety of concertante types, ranging from the four-part concerto to the solo concerto, including examples akin to the concerto grosso. The manuscript rubrics reveal a distinction between concertos described as “a quattro”—such as those in D major (Vienna collection) and F major—and true solo concertos, such as those in B-flat major and in D major (the latter preserved in Dresden), in which the violin assumes a leading and markedly virtuosic role.
Particularly unusual is the Concerto in C major with obbligato second violin, in which the solo intervention of the ripieno violins lends the work the character of a concerto grosso. Also noteworthy is the handling of the basso continuo: the manuscripts differentiate between organ and harpsichord, an indication observed in this recording. The Viennese concertos also feature a separate part for violone, with a simplified bass line akin to the usage described by Michel Corrette in his Méthode pour apprendre facilement à jouer du violon, de la viole et de la contre basse (Paris, 1783), where the line is reduced to the harmonic fundamentals. The violone part is in the hand of a different copyist from that of the other parts, and may be attributed to the self-styled “Amateur of the violoncello” Nicolò Sanguinazzo, a figure linked to the Estensische Musikalien collection in Vienna, which includes no fewer than four violin concertos by Ferronati. In this collection—which also contains Vivaldi manuscripts—numerous examples occur of violone parts simplified in relation to the bass line entrusted to chordal instruments. It is therefore plausible to suppose that these violone parts were produced by Sanguinazzo himself, with the aim of providing two distinct bass lines: a more elaborate one, free to ornament and elaborate, and a simpler one, supplying essential harmonic support.
As for the vocal works—both preserved in the Biblioteca A. Maj of Bergamo—the hymns Crudelis Herodes and En gratulemur hodie are composed in strophic form, reflecting both the structure typical of this type of liturgical text and the musical tradition to which it belongs. The first, intended for Vespers on the Feast of the Epiphany, bears at the foot of the manuscript the indication “to be repeated twice more”, though providing the text for only a single stanza; in accordance with period practice, the present performance elaborates the odd-numbered stanzas of the hymn, the even ones being intended for chanting in plainsong by the schola.
The festive En gratulemur hodie, intended for Vespers on the Feast of St Anthony, sets all three stanzas of the hymn to music and adds two horn parts to the strings, evidence of the rich instrumental resources of the Cappella of S. Maria Maggiore.
The vocal writing in these works is elegant and virtuosic, demanding of the singer considerable technical accomplishment in both range and agility—characteristics that confirm the high standard of the vocal and instrumental forces employed at the Cappella Musicale of S. Maria Maggiore in the eighteenth century.
Cadenzas, graces and embellishments have been devised by the present-day performer in keeping with eighteenth-century practice. In the vocal works, the presence of fermatas at cadential points suggests the insertion of cadenzas, customarily improvised by the virtuosi for whom the compositions were intended. In the Concerto in C major, a solo violin cadenza has been inserted to avoid an unduly abrupt conclusion; it is modelled on Capriccio No. 1 for solo violin from Op. 3 by Pietro Antonio Locatelli, a tribute intended to highlight the legacy which Ferronati—identified by A. Dunning as a possible first teacher of the celebrated virtuoso—bequeathed to later generations.
The recording, made in the evocative Church of the Holy Sepulchre of the monastery of Astino and made possible through the support of the Fondazione MIA—the body responsible for the administration of the Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore—seeks to restore the sacred and historical character of these works.
This discographic publication thus stands as a valuable testimony to the musical heritage of the eighteenth century, offering today’s audience access to a rare and fascinating chapter of the Baroque repertoire, hitherto almost entirely overlooked.