Alessandro Scarlatti – Con eco d’amore

Elizabeth Watts, Laurence Cummings, The English Concert

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It’s dashing Domenico – composer of so many finger-pleasing harpsichord sonatas – that we all know today. But back in the eighteenth century it was his father who was the famous one. Alessandro was born in Palermo in 1660, trained in Rome and spent much of his life in Naples as maestro di cappella to the Spanish Viceroy. Though he wrote comparatively little instrumental music, his extraordinary productivity as a composer of vocal music outstripped even Vivaldi: leaving us with hundreds of motets, at least six-hundred cantatas and around thirty oratorios. But Alessandro’s main business was conducted in the theatre. He kept meticulous count of his operas, and when he finally retired in 1721 he claimed to have penned well over a hundred of them.
‘Figlio! Tiranno!’ was one of the highlights of Scarlatti’s last opera Griselda, first performed at Rome’s Teatro Capranica in January 1721. We join the opera at a moment of high tension. Ottone has threatened to kill Griselda’s child before her eyes unless she submits to his desires. In her aria Griselda is so choked with emotion that in the first section she can only manage to sing short, declamatory phrases punctuated by pregnant pauses as she glances despairingly at her child and Ottone. Scarlatti brilliantly organizes these melodic snatches into a coherent whole which is given impetus and dramatic momentum by the nervy scrubbing of the strings in the background.

Tracklist

Please note that the below previews are loaded as 44.1 kHz / 16 bit.
1.
Griselda - Figlio! Tiranno! O Dio!
02:16
2.
Endimione e Cintia - Aria Se geloso é il mio core
03:01
3.
Non so qual più m'ingombra - Aria Nacque, col Gran Messia
08:41
4.
Eraclea - Aria A questo nuovo affanno
03:47
5.
La Santissima Vergine del Rosario - Aria Mentr'io godo in dolce oblio
05:48
6.
Correa Nel Seno Amato - Aria Ombre opache
05:23
7.
Erminia - Recitativo Qui, dove al germogliar
03:22
8.
Erminia - Aria Torbido, irato, e nero
05:01
9.
Aria Con voce festiva
01:29
10.
Mitridate Eupatore - Recitativo O vane speme! - Aria Cara tomba del mio diletto
06:24
11.
Tigrane - Aria Sussurrando il venticello
06:46
12.
Scipione nelle Spagne - Aria Ergiti, Amor, su i vanni
02:38
13.
Mitridate Eupatore - Aria Esci omai
03:29
14.
Mitridate Eupatore - Aria Dolce stimolo al tuo bel cor
05:18
15.
Venere, Amore e Ragione - Aria D'amor l'accesa face
02:43
16.
. La Statira - Aria Io non son di quei campioni
02:05
17.
A battaglia, pensieri - Sinfonia - Aria A battaglia, pensieri
03:46

Total time: 01:11:57

Additional information

Label

SKU

807574DI

Qualities

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Artists

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Composers

Genres

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Instruments

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Original Recording Format

Producer

Brad Michel

Recording Engineer

Brad Michel, Matthew Bennett

Recording location

All Hallows' Church, gospel Oak London

Recording Software

Merging

Recording Type & Bit Rate

DSD64

Release DateOctober 9, 2015

Press reviews

The Arts Desk for The English Concert

“Best Classical Albums of 2015” Award.
This recital album collects soprano arias by his Domenico Scarlatti’s father Alessandro, who composed 600 cantatas, 30 oratorios, and over 100 operas during a 40-year career. Soprano Elizabeth Watts and director Laurence Cummings give us a dazzling sequence of numbers. Her voice is thrilling at full pelt: brassy enough to make your windows rattle, but sensitive and seductive in the quieter moments. There’s some glorious, athletic trumpet playing from Mark Bennett, and the whole anthology fizzes with theatrical energy.

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