Raul Montanari Ric Velardi

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.

A Lenten oratorio in the Italian tradition of sacred opera, Il Dolore di Maria Vergine is widely held to be the outstanding masterpiece in the genre by Alessandro Scarlatti. Structured in two extended parts, it assigns roles to the Virgin Mary, St John, Nicodemus and to a High Priest named Onìa. The challenge taken on by the composer and his anonymous librettist early in 1717 was to make a mere four characters effective as vehicles for conveying the drama of the Passion, moving as Bach does from the capture of Jesus in Gethsemane, to his interrogation by Pilate, his scourging and crowning with thorns, his journey to Calvary and his crucifixion and death.

Alessandro Stradella was, along with Henry Purcell and Heinrich von Biber, among the most striking and idiosyncratic composers of the late seventeenth century. He is known principally for his cantatas on sacred subjects such as "La Susanna" and "San Giovanni Battista," which prefigure Handel's oratorios, and from which Handel borrowed freely. Stradella's musical eccentricities were paralleled by his irregular life. A member of the minor nobility, he ran through his inheritance while young, and thereafter supplemented his musical earnings by questionable financial dealings that incurred the anger of influential families.

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 – 1725) was the prolific composer of more than 800 cantatas. However, the majority of these compositions are unpublished and preserved in manuscript copy only. In this context, Maestro Estévan Velardi and Alessandro Stradella Consort will give life and exposure to two of Alessandro Scarlatti’s repertoire gems: the Serenatas “Al fragor di lieta tromba” and “Bel piacere ch’è la caccia”, First World recorded in this release on period instruments. The clamshell box with contains 2 CDs and a 100 pages volume edited by musicologists and Alessandro Scarlatti’s music scholars including the late Maestro Roberto Pagano, to whose memory the release is dedicated.

Alessandro Scarlatti is a great man but his compositions are very difficult, in a theatre audience of a thousand people only 20 will understand them, thus said Count Francesco Zambeccari, an influential contemporary, and it is a testimony of the skill, complexity and depth of his rich music, a far cry from the facile and fashionable composers of his day. The Oratorio per la Santissima Trinita was composed in 1715, written at the mature age of 50, specifically intended for performance in Naples. The music is at the service of the drama, in a musical action that flows almost without caesura, presenting the richness of Scarlattis invention, always backed up by extremely in-depth knowledge of all the best composition techniques of the long tradition of the Italian School.

Alessandro Stradella was an important early composer of trumpet music. Like Melani, he worked in Rome for much of his career, though by 1681, when he wrote the wedding cantata Il barcheggio, he was living in Genoa; he was murdered in a Genoese street the following February and Il barcheggio is said to have been his last work.

Alessandro Scarlatti formed the bridge between the rich vocal style of the Italian Baroque masters of the 17th century and the gallant style of Mozart and his contemporaries. San Filippo Neri is grand and Oratorio in Handelian style, full of dramatic arias and striking instrumental effects. Excellent performance on authentic instruments by the specialist group Alessandro Stradella Consort, conducted by Estevan Velardi.

The first work, ‘Qual prodigio è ch’io miri?’, is often cited, quite correctly, as a source for some of Handel’s ‘plague’ chorus melodies in ‘Israel in Egypt’ – including flies and lice, hailstones and ‘he led them forth like sheep’. But I imagine not all that many listeners will have heard Stradella’s original music, and hearing these passages in their original form is in itself a cause of fascination and delight; for a sample, try the Sinfonia (track 9). The work takes the form of a conversation between two male lovers and the female object of their affections, and is here sung by two sopranos and a bass. All three singers are excellent - as is the superb Alessandro Stradella Consort, directed by Estevan Velardi, who have already brought us several first-class recordings of Italian baroque music including other works by Stradella.

Italian Baroque composer Alessandro Stradella (1639-1682) is known for his dramatic life, whose watchwords were sex and violence; he was stabbed to death, right under the nose of his bodyguard, by assassins sent out by the husband of a nobleman whose wife he had seduced. His music is just beginning to enter general circulation, and it's as exciting as one might imagine, with plenty of vocal acrobatics to challenge even the best singers. The "serenade" featured on this Italian release, Vola, vola in altri petti (Fly, fly to other hearts), is a work for four singers, about 40 minutes long; it contains recitatives and arias, along with an opening instrumental sinfonia and a dance interlude.