Alessandro Chetta Woke

Alessandro Stradella was the undisputed star composer of his day who wrote hundreds of works in varying genres. His cantatas are in essence miniature operas in which the themes of love and the complexities of the human condition reflected the composer’s own ‘cloak and dagger’ misadventures amidst Roman and Venetian aristocracy. From an allegory of life in Apre l’uomo infelice and captivating pastoral scenes in Qui dove fa soggiorno, to unrequited love and the desire for freedom expressed in Per tua vaga beltade, Stradella adapted his inventiveness to his patrons’ tastes to create these veritable jewels in music, all of which are rich in splendid melodies and refined artistry.

The brothers Marcello, Alessandro and the more famous Benedetto, were born into an illustrious patrician family in Venice in 1684 and 1686 respectively. The eldest, with his eclectic talent, proved to be attracted to both the arts and the sciences from an early age; the youngest, better known as the “prince of sacred music”, was about to study the violin very young. According to legend, still children, Alessandro mocked him for his lack of talent in front of the princess of Brunswick, which made him swear to devote himself to musical studies in a zealous manner.

Thirty-five of Scarlatti’s oratorios are extant, a mere handful yet recorded. Biondi’s championing of them is very welcome, as this excellently recorded disc vividly demonstrates. His sterling research has uncovered date and place (1704, Rome) for the first performance of this mini-drama – the Virgin Mary, single-handedly and contrary to Christian doctrine, defeating the power of Lucifer and sentencing him ‘to eternal weeping and cries of pain’. Two Corelli trio sonatas serve as interludes within the oratorio. Rossana Bertini celebrates the Virgin’s birthday with a lovely fresh voice. Lucifer, unusually tenor rather than bass, is a taxing role – Crispi flags momentarily, though he is agile and well cast.

Alessandro Melani (1639-1703) was a prolific author of cantatas: we know of some thirty works, many of them written for solo soprano and concertante trumpet, some with the accompaniment of strings and basso continuo and others yet with the only support of basso continuo. Our CD presents six such cantatas some of which - for example Quai bellici accenti - are relatively well-known, while others are less popular although of equally high musical standard. The soprano Rosita Frisani gives of them a fine interpretation, full of virtuosity and beautiful nuances, well supported by the Alessandro Stradella Consort conducted by Estevan Velardi, who has long devoted himself to 17th- and 18th-century Italian music.

The CD, as always unreleased, is dedicated to the great exponent of the Italian baroque, Antonio Vivaldi, of which six brilliant concertos for oboe and orchestra are offered. They are interpreted by the French oboist and virtuoso Fabien Thouand (First Oboe of the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia) and by Alessandro Tirotta on the podium of the Cilea Theater Orchestra founded in 2003.

Niccolò Jommelli is a composer whose significance in his own time has strangely not endured. His importance as an innovator in the field of opera is probably as significant as that of Gluck, in the generation immediately following. He was particularly important in the development of orchestrally accompanied recitative, a feature that is apparent throughout this oratorio. Indeed, the orchestral importance is one of the highlights of the disc, for, while the singing is excellent, the playing of the Berliner Barock Akademie is outstanding. There are also several excellently played aria obbligatos. This is the second feature of Jommelli’s writing that comes across as reason for surprise at his neglect. The writing in his arias is both melodically beautiful and extensively developed; many of the arias are seven or eight minutes long, yet with no padding of sequences. The demands that this places on the soloists is considerable, and they are a uniformly excellent group, Anke Herrmann and Jeffrey Francis in particular rising to the challenge of some exceptional demands with panache.

…Fine motets by Stradella and Bassani make this disc worth investigation. …violinist Patrick Cohën-Akenine with his excellent bad Les Folies Françoises play with resonant warmth, particularly in two dynamically charged Corelli sonatas.

The first complete and unabridged recording of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s operatic masterpiece, as well as the world-premiere recording on period instruments, undertaken by the critically acclaimed 2010 production from the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, known as the “Bayreuth of Baroque Opera”. In his all too brief career Pergolesi, who died in 1736 aged only 26, set the course for 18th century opera. His works, especially L’Olimpiade, which was first performed in 1735, introduced a new and sentimental tone to the opera stage. Based on one of the most popular subject matters of opera seria, Pergolesi’s masterpiece L’Olimpiade offers a drama of love and intrigue coupled with highly virtuoso singing. Presenting Italian conductor Alessandro de Marchi, one of the most sought-after Early Music specialists, and a stunning cast of top-league international Baroque singers.

There are many other highly recommendable recordings by Collegium Musicum 90 under Simon Standage on the Chandos early music label, Chaconne. If you’ve heard a reasonable cross-section of the music of Vivaldi and would like to experiment with some of his near-contemporaries, their recording of Alessandro Marcello’s six Violin Concertos, Op.6, known as ‘La Cetra’, together with an extra Concerto in B-flat, would be a good place to start.