The younger of the two Sammartini brothers, Giovanni Battista spent the whole of his life in Milan where he produced a prodigious output of some 450 vocal and instrumental works, numbered ‘J-C’ after Jenkins and Churgin, who catalogued the output of the composer. His 67 surviving symphonies reflect the changes that took place as baroque techniques gave way to those associated with the classical. The six symphonies heard on this disc range in style and scoring from the early works for strings and continuo, including the C minor, J-C 9, with its dramatic first movement, to those of clear pre-classical form (J-C 62 and J-C 4) from around 1750, which include prominent parts for horns and trumpets.