Caro mi ben

It is ironic that the one piece by which Giuseppe Giordani, who wrote as many as thirty operas, is remembered today is an aria which might well be by a contemporary but unrelated Italian composer with the same surname, Tommaso Giordani – or even, to complicate matters, by Tommaso’s father who was also called Giuseppe Giordani. The problem as to which Giordani wrote it pales into insignificance, however, alongside the sublime simplicity of the music itself with its sadly drooping melodic line and a middle section just different enough and just long enough to offset the lamenting outer sections.