Con Voce Festiva - Alessandro Scarlatti

"Scarlatti's cantatas are veritable miniature operas in which his writing for the voice highlights the expressive powers of the various affects of love: love the pleasure-seeker, love the tyrant, love the traitor and love the combatant. Voice and instruments unite in an inventive spirit of virtuoso rivalry, laying bare the passions of the soul".

 



ENJOY!

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Cantatas and Chamber Music - Alessandro Scarlatti

 Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) is condered one of the greatest composers of the baroque period. Hi is best known for his chamber music output, his more than 700 cantatas confirms it, but his operas were also numerous and important, so that, A. Scarlatti is conseidered the founder of the Napolitan opera school. 

His style is unique and plenty of quirks with keen modulations and contrasts in his openings, as can be noticed in this recording. Also one thing that is remarcable is that the arias present in the cantatas here performed, are da capo arias-that is, in the orden A-B-A in wich a first idea is displayed and elaborated at the begining and at the end with a contrasting part (B) in the middle, most of the time as an adagio-, so, is a clue of  Scarlatti's abandonement of his early compositional preference in which his arias showed no repetitions at all.  

Enjoy!

Flac   Mp3

Il Primo Uomo - Arias for Nicolini

Nicolini (Nicola Grimaldo (1673-1732)) was the first castrato in his time, he increased the popularity of Italian opera in England. The very Handel was astonished by Nicolini's voice, that he composed arias specifically for him. The same did others composers of first hand, such as  Alessandro Scarlatti, Caldara, Leo, etc.

All the time he performed, he raised the public entusiam not only for his singing, but because of his portent and good looking, and excepcional aptitutes to act. In few words, he was a super star in the very late XVII century and the beggining of the XVIII.

Enjoy!

Flac     Mp3

Arcadia - Andreas Scholl

To complement my last post, I decided to post also this jewel of pieces devoted for "castrati" made by composers members of  the "Accademia degli Arcadia" in Rome.

From my own experience, I have found that recordings after world premieres are better, but this is an exception among few. This recording brings to life composers that unfortunately have been relegated to obscurity, such as, Gasparini, Bencini or even more, Benedetto Marcello. Alessandro Scarlatti and Corelli were once relegated, but by the time of this recording, they were already greatly revived.  

Enjoy!

Flac      Mp3

Cantatas Vol III - Alessandro Scarlatti

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EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 357 MB | Scans

MP3 320 Kbps | 185 MB | Scans

FLAC                  MP3

Cantatas Vol II - Alessandro Scarlatti

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EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 379 MB | Scans

MP3 320 Kbps | 183 MB | Scans

FLAC                  MP3

Cantatas Vol I - Alessandro Scarlatti

 Alessandro Scarlatti os one of the key figures of the baroque era, he was more prolifiq than his son Domenico, even though less known. His renown comes from his vast output of vocal music, wich most of it is chamber vocal music or cantatas. In the period Scarlatti lived, the cantata was probably  the most popular form of music between the intellectual society, and the most wanted were those composed for a castrato.

One of the facts that rends this music so charming itself, is beacause cantatas were intended for a minimal audience and with a minimal instrumental accompaniment that allow the composer to play with the voice more freely than if it was an opera, because the singer do not have to sing loud and do not have to use remarked vibrato as in opera.   

Enjoy!!!

EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 342 MB | Scans

MP3 320 Kbps | 184 MB | Scans

FLAC                  MP3