Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) staat tegenwoordig te boek als een obscuur componist, niet in de laatste plaats door de veel grotere bekendheid van zijn zoon Domenico. Tijdens zijn leven was hij echter immens populair, en behoorde tot de belangrijkste cantate- en operacomponisten voordat met name Handel zijn positie overnam. Elizabeth Watts laat nu horen dat Alessandro Scarlatti vele prachtige aria's heeft geschreven, soms relatief eenvoudig maar vaker duizelingwekkend virtuoos. Dit topje van de ijsberg (Scarlatti senior schreef alleen al meer dan honderd opera's) smaakt zeker naar meer.
Alessandro Scarlatti: Con eco d'amore
Scarlatti, A:
Figlio! Tiranno! (from La Griselda)
Se geloso è il mio core (from Endimione e Cintia)
Nacque, col Gran Messia (from Non so qual piu)
A questo nuovo affanno (from L'Eraclea)
Mentre io godo in dolce oblio (from La Santissima Vergine)
Ombre opache
Qui dove … Torbido irato e nero
Con voce festiva
O vane speme! ... Cara tomba del mio diletto (from Il Mitridate Eupatore)
Sussurrando il venticello (from Tigrane)
Ergiti, Amor, su i vanni (from Scipione nelle Spagne)
Esci ommai (from Il Mitridate Eupatore)
Dolce stimolo al tuo bel cor (from Il Mitridate Eupatore)
D’amor l’accesa face (from Venere, Amore e Ragione)
Io non son di quei campioni (from La Statira)
A battaglia, pensieri
Elizabeth Watts (soprano), Mark Bennett (trumpet), Huw Daniel (violin) & Laurence Cummings (continuo, director)
The English Concert
With a voice described as "one of the most beautiful Britain has seen in a generation" (IRR), Elizabeth Watts has established herself among the brightest talents performing today. After training as a chorister at Norwich Cathedral, Elizabeth went on to study archaeology at Sheffield University before attending the Royal College of Music in London.
Her many prizes include the 2006 Kathleen Ferrier Prize (UK), the 2007 Outstanding Young Artist Award at the Cannes MIDEM Classique Awards and the Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize at the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. A former ‘BBC New Generation Artist’, she received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2011 and this recording is supported by the Trust. Her critically praised debut recording of Schubert Lieder was followed by an equally acclaimed disc of Bach Cantatas (harmonia mundi), a programme of Richard Strauss Lieder with Roger Vignoles, and a recording of Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music led by Richard Egarr.
In this selection of rarely heard Alessandro [rather than Domenico] Scarlatti arias from his cantatas, oratorios and operas, she is joined by the acclaimed period instrument ensemble The English Concert led by Laurence Cummings. Elizabeth is currently recording Couperin's 'Lecons de Tenebres' with Lucy Crowe and La Nuova Musica for harmonia mundi.
