Search - Alessandro Scarlatti, Domenico Scarlatti, Fabio Biondi :: Scarlatti: Concerti & Sinfonie

Excellent Recording; Historically Important

Brint Montgomery | Bethany, OK United States | 06/05/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A Crisp and clear recording, and the best of the orderly, structured music of The Enlightenment in my opinion. One can hear the optimism and confidence of the time ringing thru the music of The Scarlattis. Around 1701, Domenico (b.1685 - d.1757) was named organist and composer of the vice-regal court at Naples, where his father was a respected maestro. About a year later he took a leave of absence and travelled with his family to Florence where his father, Alessandro (b. 1660 - d. 1725), hoped for employment from Pnnce Ferdinando de' Medici. Sadly, Alessandro didn't get the job, so his father canned Domenico in 1705 and sent him off to Venice to find employment. Some think that Domenico first met Handel in Venice. (The two eventually formed a strong friendship.) Domenico also spent time in Rome (where he wrote seven operas for Queen Maria Casimira) and in Portugal.



By the invention of the machine gun (esp. the Gatlin gun in 1861), things have changed in classical music, and one does not hear such calm, rational, even mathematical structures appearing as the main motiffs from composers of the day. Even earlier, however, the committment to reason was fading fast. First, in 1853, Richard Wagner publishes the librettos to Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle): Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Seigfried and Die Götterdämerung. The Ring Cycle is considered one of the most ambitious musical projects ever undertaken by a single person, and everything is now "over the top", poetic and romantic. Second, in 1860 the slave trade introduces West African rhythms, work songs, chants and spirituals to America, which strongly influence blues and jazz, and which attracts many of the best musical minds of the era.



For some time now, there has been no room for any philosopher kings in contemporary (i.e post-enlightenment) society. Given the continuing craziness of the early 21st century, don't look for any to soon arise."

Forgotten Master Reappraised

Neal Clarke | Somewhere between America and the 18th Century | 09/03/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The world became a poorer place when the Italians stopped writing counterpoint. This disk captures the solemn ceremonial joy of the Concerto Grosso form as developed by Archangelo Corelli and expanded here by Alessandro Scarlatti. Scarlatti was unique in several respects, a Baroque Sicilian writing in Italy, a successful Operatic and Choral composer who, in mid-career produced this set of finely wrought and introspective concerti grossi, at a time when such instrumental works were seen as a mere obligatory adjunct in preparation for Operatic composition- the purview of young composers eager to demonstrate their competence. We don't know why such a successful vocal composer would suddenly turn to instrumental writing, or how it was these pieces emerged so intimate and personal in character, but we can be grateful that they did.



Fabio Biondi and Europa Galante shine in some of their best performances to date, transporting the listener back to the marbled palaces and cathedrals of Eighteenth Century Italy. Their respect and admiration for this music and this composer is obvious; their playing graced with the conviction that the music of the elder Scarlatti needs no excuses or elaborate interpretation to demonstrate its quality.



Included on the disk are several short works by the younger Scarlatti, Domenico, whose concerti and sinfoni seem rather shallow and perfunctory in comparison to those of his Father. Even so, the comparison between the two generations of Scarlatti is both entertaining and informative.



These are among the greatest Baroque Concerti, and at the same time among the least appreciated. There is polyphony here to delight the Baroque Music Lover, lively, inspired and elegant. My particular favorite is the F Minor Concerto, towards the beginning of the disk, which begins with an Adagio that breaks over the listener like a prayer, and then resolves into a captivating fugue that features some surprisingly modern accent displacement, at once venerable and thoroughly original. If you have grown tired of Vivaldi's overt simplicity and are eager for a composer of genius to counterbalance the great German Masters, Alessandro Scarlatti is your man. His concertos are not numerous, but, such as they are, fully worthy of inclusion in the repertoire of Baroque Instrumental Masterpieces."