Natale

The Baroque Ensemble “Carlo Antonio Marino”, directed by Natale Arnoldi, already protagonist of important Classical and late Baroque productions, within this album is faced with the concertos from the seventh opus by Pietro Antonio Locatelli, well known composer and violinist from Bergamo. When it appeared, this collection was not particularly successful; probably the mixture of different musical styles in the Concertos was not appreciated by the public, which by then was moving towards the new sensitivity of the galant style. Op.7, in any case, is an excellent and occasionally brilliant work of Locatelli’s: a musician who, in spite of the fact that in 1741 he had already attained fame and glory, did not hesitate to run the risk of attempting to renew the waning Italian Concerto, by experimenting with approaches that might accommodate the new trends, without however denying his own origins.

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were important for the development of the transverse flute: the technical improvements introduced by French and German flautists made the instrument more accurate in its tuning, more powerful in its sound, and more agile in quick passages, so much so that it superseded the recorder and began to compete with the violin, even replacing it in some sonatas or concertos.

Composer Pino Donaggio teamed with filmmaker Brian DePalma to forge one of the most memorable collaborations in cinema history, writing a series of suspenseful, hauntingly atmospheric scores evoking Bernard Herrmann's landmark work for Alfred Hitchcock.

Few music-lovers will be familiar with the name of Giovanni Battista Costanzi. Some may know him as a cello concerto in D is attributed to Haydn (H VIIb,4), but also to Costanzi. That piece dates from 1772, close to the end of his life and career. The present disc includes a piece which he composed in 1723, when he hadn't even turned 20. At that time he had already entered the service of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome. In 1729 his opera Carlo Magno was performed, which was a huge success. As a result he held some of the most prestigious positions in Roman music life in the next decades. It seems that Luigi Boccherini was one of his pupils. The French composer Grétry considered him one of Rome's most popular composers.

Extraordinarily, Alessandro Scarlatti (who died in 1725 and forms a strong bridge between the mature Baroque and later classical traditions, according to musicologist Edward Dent) wrote some sixty-four operas, twenty oratorios, hundreds of chamber cantatas, and a host of madrigals, masses, motets, toccatas, concertos, sonatas and symphonies. Very little of this is heard today, sadly, except in specialist circles. Perhaps one of the more popularly performed pieces is 'Abramo, il tuo sembiante' (a Christmas cantata). When Handel visited Italy between 1706 and 1710, he met Scarlatti and may even have studied with him. This performance of said cantata is well within the Italian style - clear lines and intricate ornamentation.

I Musici di Santa Pelagia hanno partecipato a numerose rassegne musicali e a manifestazioni di risonanza internazionale sia in Italia sia all’estero. Roma Festival Barocco, MiTo, Les concerts à Saint-Germain (Ginevra) e Mille anni di Musica Italiana (Madrid), ottenendo ampi consensi di pubblico e critica.