a Scarlatti

In the 17th century, an astonishing stream of compositions poured out of Naples, and Neapolitan composers and performers enjoyed extraordinarily high reputations all over Europe. One of the most important occasions in Neapolitan musical life were the so-called Spassi di Posillipo, open-air festivals on the Neapolitan shore.

In the 17th century, an astonishing stream of compositions poured out of Naples, and Neapolitan composers and performers enjoyed extraordinarily high reputations all over Europe. One of the most important occasions in Neapolitan musical life were the so-called Spassi di Posillipo, open-air festivals on the Neapolitan shore.

The program is a strong point straight off here; the Alessandro Scarlatti Missa Breve and the Stabat Mater by his son Domenico are both rich, fascinating works that progressively deconstruct the model of making music around two (or more) separate choirs, a century old by the time the Scarlattis took it up. The Stabat Mater is a really lovely work, but it's been hampered in the repertory but uncertainty over performance practice; it's not clear how many singers should be used, or how they should be deployed in solos and massed groups (if any). It is not really a double-choir work at all but a mass in 10 parts, with those subdivided into various groupings including five plus five.

The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Catholic hymn to Mary, which portrays her suffering as Jesus Christ's mother during his crucifixion. Its author may be either the Franciscan friar Jacopone da Todi or Pope Innocent III. The title comes from its first line, Stabat Mater dolorosa, which means "the sorrowful mother was standing". The hymn is sung at the liturgy on the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. The Stabat Mater has been set to music by many Western composers.

This DG Archiv compilation, subtitled “Christmas in Rome” was recorded by English forces directed by Trevor Pinnock a quarter of a century ago in the resonant acoustic of the magnificent church of Santa Maria Maggiore and has worn very well. It comprises three festive works from contemporaneous, Italian baroque composers, although the Scarlatti item is certainly less familiar or celebrated than the other two. Nonetheless, it is worthy to stand alongside them, sweetly and elegantly sung by Nancy Argenta’s silvery (sic) soprano. The forces employed throughout are not large but the performers are robust and energetic, without being frantic, and the astringent original instruments are well tuned.

Seux génies du baroque italien à la filiation évidente et dont la musique emplit églises, palais et théâtres du Royaume napolitain au début du XVIIIè siècle sont ici réunis : Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) et Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736).

Cecilia Bartoli's new CD features a collection of music that could not be heard in her native Rome at the start of the 18th century due to Papal censorship. Theaters, the Church felt, were places of evil and corruption and operas led people to immorality. But some music-loving senior members of the priesthood asked composers to write oratorios and cantatas–indeed, operas without staging, essentially–for their own private entertainment. Call it what you will, the music is sensational–by turns virtuosic, gentle, and playful–and always expressive: just right, it seems, for Cecilia Bartoli's temperament. The opening aria on the CD, a call for peace in the name of Jesus, is, in fact, a dazzling martial air with trumpets blaring and the voice going through an amazing array of coloratura fireworks.

The so-called 'Naples Manuscript' which is mentioned in the title of this disc is kept in the library of the Conservatorio di Musica San Pietro a Majella in Naples, and bears the title Concerti di Flauto, Violini, Violetta e Basso, di Diversi Autori. The 24 compositions in the manuscript are chamber concertos for recorder, two violins and bc, with three of them containing a part for a viola.

The tune known as 'La Folia' has fascinated many composers since the seventeenth century. Portuguese in origin, the word means 'mad' or 'empty-headed' and until the 1670s it indicated a fast and noisy dance in which the participants seemed to be 'out of their minds'. By the end of the century a new, slower form had developed which threw the accent from the first beat on to the second every other bar and slightly adjusted the harmonic structure to form the perfect symmetry which inspired Corelli to use it in the twelfth of his Violin Sonatas, Op 5. That famous work further inspired Vivaldi, C P E Bach, Alessandro Scarlatti and other composers to write variations on 'La Folia'—including even Rachmaninov (though his 'Variations on a theme of Corelli' seem to indicate that he thought the tune was by that composer).

Nicolo »Nicolini« Grimaldi (1673-1732) war der »primo uomo assoluto«, der unangefochtene »erste Kastrat« auf allen großen Opernbühnen seiner Zeit. Seine Stimme war in ihrem Umfang und Klang so einzigartig, dass große Komponisten wie Händel und Scarlatti Arien extra für ihn komponierten. Schon mit 13 Jahren hatte er in Neapel seine ersten Erfolge gefeiert – u. a. in einer Oper seines »Entdeckers« Scarlatti. Und so erfolgreich ging es für Nicolini weiter: 1699 debütierte er in Rom, 1700 in Venedig und betrat erstmals 1708 auf Geheiß des Earl of Manchester englischen Boden. Hier lernte er Händel kennen, mit dem er dann 1711 bei der Uraufführung der Oper Rinaldo in der gleichnamigen Titelrolle die Zuhörer begeisterte.