Nowadays, critics and historians acknowledge Father Martini as a music scholar and theorist, but comparatively little is known of his compositions, which represented a wide range of different genres. Scholars have tended to focus on his sacred music and have been somewhat misled by a romantic image of the man as severe and academic. [...] This image is however destined to fade, especially in view of these ten Chamber symphonies, chosen from twenty-four written between 1736 and 1777. The autographed scores are all kept at the Civic Bibliographic Museum in Bologna. This recording overcomes false prejudices and reveals a Father Martini who looked at the new language of expression with favour, rather than being a nostalgic curator of the past.

Francesco Ermini Polacci