la Settimana Enigmstica

The Oratorio per la Settimana Santa, which is among the very first compositions to be labelled “oratorio” in the sources, was composed in Rome in the 1640s. It was probably performed in the Oratorio di San Girolamo della Carità, where Filippo Neri held his esercizi spirituali. It appears in a manuscript source from the Barberini collection of the Vatican Library which doesn’t specify its composer— although this is usually identified as Luigi Rossi — but names Giulio Cesare Raggioli as the author of the text. Both Raggioli and Rossi worked for members of the Barberini family, who were close relations of pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini), and themselves powerful patrons of music and the arts. an opera.

Alessandro Scarlatti – Lamentazioni per la Settimana Santa
Cristina Miatello - Ensemble Aurora / Enrico Gatti
2xCD | EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 550 MB | Artwork: 22 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Glossa # GCD 921205 | Country/Year: Europe 2011, 1992
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque, Sacred, Vocal

"…This is the only complete recording that I know of this work. It was recorded in 1992 for Symphonia, and probably did not have a great deal of circulation on that less well-known label. (…) If you don’t have the original release in your collection, this is definitely the one you should get. It is an outstanding recording that has certainly stood the test of time." ~Fanfare