Sinfonia in G[1], Sinfonia in G[2], Sinfonia in A [Grave-Staccato], Overtura

Luka Sorkočević (1734 – 1789) became in 1752 a member of the Great Council, and he negotiated with France on behalf of the Republic in 1776 and with Joseph II in 1781–2. He studied music with G.A. Valente in Dubrovnik and then for some time around 1757 with Rinaldo di Capua in Rome; his entire compositional activity falls between the years 1754 and 1770. He was acquainted with Metastasio, Haydn and Gluck. His symphonies, written for the orchestra he maintained in his household, are in three movements, conceived in the standard Italian idiom of the time. Sinfonia del Sig. Luca Ant. o di Sorgo is the title placed over a three-movement score in G major that bears the shelf number 77/1993. Instruments indicated are “Traverso” or transverse flute and “Violino” over a bass that is on the whole not recorded and that – in the central, slow moment, the only one that has the tempo marking (Largo) – is omitted. Both of the framing quick movements are similar in their formal scheme: the theme of the characteristic beginning is merged into passage transitions and its reappearance in the tonality of the dominant (but on the third and not on the first beat, which changes the accentuation of the melody) marks the beginning of the second part, after the first phrase reappearing in the tonic tonality. The central movement in E minor has a clear double articulation that is marked by a theme with passage characteristics and a harmonic approach to E major. The late Baroque fluidity is here occasionally slowed down or halted by cadences, and the themes and their passages are marked by sequences of arpeggios above a simple shift in the bass.