Scarlatti: Euridice dall'Inferno (2009)

Alessandro Scarlatti is most often remembered in modern times as Domenico's dad, but in his day he was hailed as the king of the chamber cantata. For the last part of that he had to contend with stiff competition from up and comers like George Frederick Handel and Georg Philipp Telemann, and still, nevertheless, held his ground during his own lifetime. This Naxos disc, Alessandro Scarlatti: Euridice dall'Inferno, combines a never-before recorded cantata of that name dating from 1699 with a short Latin oratorio, La ... Read More

Alessandro Scarlatti is most often remembered in modern times as Domenico's dad, but in his day he was hailed as the king of the chamber cantata. For the last part of that he had to contend with stiff competition from up and comers like George Frederick Handel and Georg Philipp Telemann, and still, nevertheless, held his ground during his own lifetime. This Naxos disc, Alessandro Scarlatti: Euridice dall'Inferno, combines a never-before recorded cantata of that name dating from 1699 with a short Latin oratorio, La concettione della Beata Vergine (1702), also new to recordings, combined with a couple of Scarlatti's instrumental compositions to provide variety. To have a vocal work of Alessandro Scarlatti wholly new to disc is not in itself unusual; he wrote hundreds of them, and not very many have been recorded, at least compared to how the situation is for Telemann and Handel in that category. However, Euridice dall'Inferno is an exceptionally fine example of his work in the genre, and well performed... Read Less