Screbanenco Venere

Scarlatti fans will rejoice in this 3CD album from Australian early-music ensemble chacona, featuring renowned scholar and harpsichordist Rosalind Halton, who both directs and plays in the ensemble. Includes several world premiere recordings.

Deux oeuvres mineures de Scarlatti composent cet enregistrement, deux sérénades galantes mettant en scène l’une le triomphe de l’honnêteté sur Cupidon, l’autre Vénus et son fils l’Amour vantant ses victoires. Ersatz d’opéras, interdits par le pape À Rome lorsque Scarlatti est au service d’Ottoboni, mais sans vrai schéma dramatique, exportées sans grand succès à Naples comme Venere e Amore, ces compositions pour le plein air ou le théâtre privé sont charmantes mais d’un intérêt secondaire. Reste la curiosité au disque d’un volet du travail de Scarlatti peu connu.

Alessandro Scarlatti was undoubtedly the greatest composer of vocal music in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries. However, despite his grandeur being recognized by historians, it s only recently that his music can be heard and appreciated in concerts. The serenata could be considered the form that lies between opera and cantata, a kind of mini-opera with the usual alternation between arias and recitatives but without the effects of staging. A characteristic of the beautiful and rare serenata recorded here is the presence of a general dancing nature of many of the arias along with real instrumental dances that, towards the end, intertwine with the arias.