In as much as Alessandro Scarlatti's music is known at all, it is the large-scale operas and the chamber cantatas that have justifiably attracted the most attention. That the leading composer for the Neapolitan stage should also have turned his hand to madrigal composition, by then a distinctly outmoded and declining genre, is easily overlooked, yet a handful of such pieces have survived in manuscripts and, as this record persuasively argues, they certainly deserve a hearing. Perhaps even more surprising than their existence and survival is their style; Scarlatti eschews the possibilities of the basso continuo and opts instead for a language which at times echoes the techniques of the great age of madrigal-writing of some 100 years earlier, and above all the music of Monteverdi and Gesualdo.

Talented concert soloist Milena Frigé presents the toccatas of Scarlatti on the Tamburini Organ of Chiesa di Santa Bernardetta in Milan, and a Granziera Harpsichord modelled after a 1703 Grimbaldi instrument, representative of the instruments for which Scarlatti composed these works.

This is our fourth CD containing compositions by Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) that were chiefly meant for the harpsichord and performed on it. The project stemmed, in a natural, almost parallel fashion, from the programme for the study and publication of the vast corpus of manuscript sources (no less than 25) of Alessandro Scarlatti’s pieces for keyboard instruments that was started by us more than ten years ago: the publication of his Opera Omnia per strumento a tastiera by the publisher Ut Orpheus Edizioni of Bologna (edited by Andrea Macinanti and Francesco Tasini) began in 2000 and was completed in 2012 with the printing of the sixth and last volume.

Yet another fine early music ensemble pops up for the holiday season, courtesy of Analekta. Masques has assembled a charming program of Christmas music from the Baroque period, which of course basically sounds like any other kind of Baroque music, but it's pleasing and spunky nevertheless. The highlights are the two sets of instrumental Noëls by Charpentier and Delalande, which present a festive garland of Christmas tunes in colorful instrumental garb, recorders well to the fore. They are delightful. Schiassi's Concerto for Strings ends with one of those wonderful pastoral numbers, thus establishing its seasonal credentials in the Corellian tradition.

Con questo terzo CD, dedicato a varie composizioni di Alessandro (Pietro Gaspare) Scarlatti (Palermo, 2 maggio 1660 – Napoli, 22 ottobre 1725) destinate precipuamente all’organo, continua il progetto che prevede la registrazione degli «Opera Omnia per tastiera» del grande compositore «Palermitano».

La grande lezione di Alessandro Scarlatti, un tempo oscurati notevolmente dalla considerazione unilaterale dell’imponente corpus sonatistico del figlio Domenico, si espandono – direttamente o indirettamente – sulla produzione tastieristica dei coetanei Gaetano Greco (Grieco; 1657ca-1728) e Francesco Mancini (1672-1737); e ancora, la sua azione si ravviva e acquista un significato pieno se messa a confronto con il successivo cembalismo virtuosistico di Francesco Durante e di Leonardo Leo.

Recentemente si è rivalutata l”importanza di Alessandro anche come vero fondatore dell”importante «scuola tastieristica napoletana», della grande tradizione di una città, Napoli, «considerata come la capitale dell”armonia, la sorgente da cui si sono irradiati, in ogni altra parte d”Europa, il genio, il gusto e la cultura» (CHARLES BURNEY, The Present State of Music in France and Italy, London 1771).

A new Antonio Florio-directed recording from Glossa, once more focusing on a famous Italian singer from the Baroque era, again features the gorgeous vocal qualities of the modern-day Italian interpreter of such music, Roberta Invernizzi. This new and glorious succession of virtuoso arias captivated audiences in Roman theatres through the vocal chords of one eminent singer from 1718 onwards…

La célèbre épopée biblique relatant le meurtre d’Abel par Caïn est connue de tous, mais la mise en scène qu’Alessandro Scarlatti lui a dédiée l’est beaucoup moins. Thème récurant pour les oratorios italiens au XVIIe siècle, le sujet est traité ici à la manière d’une histoire policière. Avec un effectif musical réduit, il nous transporte dans un univers baroque étourdissant. Les accents lyriques sont d’une expressivité rare tandis que l’orchestre, faisant preuve de beaucoup de psychologie, exulte. Par bonheur, la prise de son est à l’avenant. Les divers plans sonores sont respectés avec une très belle transparence et une foule de détails sur les voix et sur les instruments.

The Brook Street Band join forces with the Choir of The Queen’s College, Oxford, and their director Owen Rees, for the first ever pairing on disc of the two settings of the Dixit Dominus by Alessandro Scarlatti and George Frideric Handel.

“Roma travestita” è il titolo dell’album di debutto discografico per il sopranista Bruno de Sá con l’etichetta Erato. Il repertorio esplorato dal giovane cantante brasiliano corrisponde al periodo storico in cui alle donne era proibito calcare i palcoscenici teatrali a Roma ed erano gli uomini ad interpretare ruoli operistici femminili. Otto delle tredici arie dell’album vengono presentate in prima registrazione assoluta. Il progetto vede la collaborazione dell’orchestra Il Pomo d’Oro diretta da Francesco Corti per l’esecuzione di arie del XVIII secolo di Vivaldi, Alessandro Scarlatti, Vinci, Galuppi e Piccinni, e di autori meno frequentati come Capua, Arena, Cocchi, Conforto e Garcìa Fajer. In scena Bruno de Sá ha già cantato in ruoli come Sesto nel Giulio Cesare di Händel e ne La clemenza di Tito di Mozart, Barbarina ne Le nozze di Figaro di Mozart e La Sirenetta nell’adattamento operistico della favola di Hans Christian Andersen composto da Jherek Bischoff.

On this sixth volume of Alessandro Scarlatti's opera omnia for keyboard, once again the star is the eighteenth century Italian Anonymous Ferrarese harpsichord owned by Francesco Tasini. Toccatas, Arpeggi, Introduzioni, and even the famous 'Folly of Spain', are contained in this volume featuring the brilliant and rich harmonics of the precious historical instrument. Extremely interesting is the interpretation by Francesco Tasini - a master of the period performance practice - that succeeds in giving us a perfect understanding of the correct approach to the compositions by Alessandro Scarlatti, true founder of the Neapolitan keyboard School.

This 25CD set presents the most famous, iconic and best-loved works from the Baroque Era, works which are part of our common musical heritage and conscience, eternally young and cherished for their charm, beauty and deeply human emotions, shared by audiences all over the world.
Played by specialized Early Music Groups like L’Arte Dell’arco, Musica Amphion, Violini Capricciosi, Musica ad Rhenum and many others.

Alessandro Scarlatti's celebrated Stabat mater was commissioned by a confraternity of aristocrats, the Cavalieri della Vergine dei Dolori, for its annual Lenten service at the Franciscan church of San Luigi in Naples. It remained in use until the confraternity commissioned Pergolesi to compose his famous setting to supplant Scarlatti's old-fashioned music. Both Pergolesi and Scarlatti composed for limited resources, each using two solo voices, two violins and basso continuo. Scarlatti's setting is by no means inferior to Pergolesi's but remains much less familiar, despite several excellent recordings.

The fifth volume of the Alessandro Scarlatti complete works for keyboard series. On this new release we enjoy the small Carlo Serassi op.442 organ (“Organino”) of 1836, today located in the basilica of S. Maria di Campagna, in Piacenza, after being placed in 1859 in the Municipal Theatre in the same city. This unique instrument, originally “Organo da Sala in Casa Serassi”, is perfectly suited to the Toccatas, Sonatas and Follias from the great master from Palermo.