Scarlatti, Alessandro

[doversoul1]

I have not listened to his instrumental works very much yet but his sacred cantatas (I think they are?) have been my staple diet for evening listening for sometime now. I think his cantatas are less catchy (well, less distinct) than Handel’s which makes it very much more dependent on good performance to make sense to the listeners. The last work on the list would make an ideal prom performance; not as long as an opera, well known story and excellently sung.

If you haven’t got round to listen to his works, try some/one of these?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJXVVapmuCw

Alessandro Scarlatti - La Giuditta　La Venexiana

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAyfduOOHWs

Alessandro Scarlatti - Il giardino di rose (oratorio)
Il Complesso Barocco, Alan Curtis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dknuQQztBDA

Alessandro Scarlatti - La Vergine dei dolori 1_2
Anna Simboli (San Giovanni)
Sara Mingardo (Maria),
Romina Basso (Nicodemo)
Daniele Zanfardino (Onia)
ténor Les Agrémens, direzione: Rinaldo Alessandrini

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6uH1KcNvD0

Alessandro Scarlatti - Maddalena 1_2
Fabio Biondi, Europa Galante

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mrQHnHVqzU

Alessandro Scarlatti - La Santissima Annunziata 1_2
Roberta Invernizzi - Marie
Emanuela Galli - l'Ange
Marta Almajano - La Virginité
Marina de Liso - l'Humilité
Magnus Staveland - Le Soupson
Europa Galante
Direzione, violone e viola d'amore : Fabio Biondi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIidojU6AVE

A. Scarlatti: Oratorio "Il Martirio di S. Cecilia"
I Barocchisti – D.Fasolis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP7eZK0pPvU

Alessandro Scarlatti - Caino ovvero il primo omicidio 1_2
Rinaldo Alessandrini conductor
Sonia Prina contralto (Caino)
Monica Piccinini soprano (Abele)
Carlo Allemano tenor (Adamo)
Roberta Invernizzi soprano (Eva)
Aurelio Schiavoni countertenor (voce di Dio)
Salvo Vitale bass (Lucifero)

[jayne lee wilson]

That last one you mention - Il Primo Omicidio - won the Baroque Vocal Gramophone Award for 1998 - but in René Jacobs' AAM Berlin recording on HM, after the highest praise from no less than Lionel Salter. (In those days, when he reviewed anything in those terms, you just bought it). I couldn't stop playing it, infernally catchy, a baroque pop album!

There's scarcely a dull aria in it, marvellous....

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Scarlatti-omicidio-Oddone-Röschmann-Berlin-x/dp/B00000DG06/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1487801430&sr=1-2&keywords=jacobs+alessandro+scarlatti

If you can track through to it on a streaming service somewhere, try dalla mandra un puro agnello, third aria in Part 1. Try getting that out of your head next day.
I bought a few more of Scarlatti's Sacred Oratorios as they came out, but none ever quite matched up to this. The handsome set includes full T&T.
I - or my ears - tend to shy away from choral/vocal much of the time now, but maybe this will go on the old bedside Tivoli later....