Giovanni Morandi, a prolific composer and singing master, was educated by his father, Pietro Morandi, who was in turn a student of Padre Giovanni Battista Martini.
Compositional Technique
Morandi's organ arrangements of opera pieces often involved changing the original key to achieve a better sound on the organ, and included variants for the instrument's range and 'split' stops.
Historical Context
The two Benedictine nunneries where Morandi taught, San Carlo di Serra de' Conti and Santa Cristina, were equipped with organs built by the prolific organ maker Gaetano Callido.
Composer Biography
Giovanni Morandi had a deep knowledge of operatic novelties, gained through twenty years of collaboration with his wife, the famous opera singer Rosa Morolli.
Performer Biography
Federica Iannella, the organist on this album, is also a musicologist interested in researching and transcribing 19th-century manuscript scores, particularly those of Giovanni Morandi.
Composition History
Giovanni Morandi's organ transcriptions of opera pieces were originally made for his pupil, Maria Benedetta Venturini, an organist at the Santa Cristina nunnery.
Composition History
Giovanni Morandi played a pioneering role in the widespread 19th-century practice of opera 'arrangements', publishing one of the earliest and most accurate reductions for voice and piano in Italy.
