Scarlatti, A: Cantata 'Su le sponde del Tebro'

The Armonico Consort return to disc on Signum (following their highly-regarded Naked Byrd CD series) with a new disc celebrating the glorious combination of soprano and trumpet in baroque music – featuring the soaring talents of Elin Manahan Thomas and Crispian Steele-Perkins.

Widely-praised for their imaginative and inventive programming, this disc features works by JS Bach (Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen), GP Telemann (Trumpet Concerto in D major), Alessandro Scarlatti (Su le sponde del Tebro) and a special compilation of works by Handel devised by Crispian Steele-Perkins.

As with cpo’s previous release featuring Scarlatti’s Sacred Cantatas (7777482) which came “highly recommended” by Gramophone, the three Secular Cantatas presented here, L’Arianna, L’Olimpia, and Su le sponde del Tebro all confirm his status as a baroque master.

In the eighteenth century the cantata was considered to be the supreme challenge for a composer’s artistry. Here are recorded three fine examples from the enormous corpus of such works by Alessandro Scarlatti, two for solo voice with continuo, and one which includes a particularly demanding part for obbligato trumpet, faultlessly played by Crispian Steele-Perkins.

These cantatas are joined by settings of the Salve regina by Domenico Scarlatti (Alessandro’s sixth son) and Johann Adolf Hasse (a pupil). The work by Hasse is distinctly operatic with florid vocal and instrumental lines, and the younger Scarlatti similarly finds himself drawn away from religious deference to a more flamboyant style.