A prolific Baroque composer of great skill, recognised by music historians particularly for his development of the Italian vocal style, the Sicilian-born Alessandro Scarlatti was overshadowed in his own day by Bach, Handel, Rameau and Vivaldi and later by his composer son Domenico, who would transition into the Classical era and is widely appreciated for his more than 500 keyboard sonatas. Usually described as a Neapolitan composer, Alessandro Scarlatti had strong ties as well to Rome, where he spent about half of his active career. The fact that at least 40 of his operas survive from his first 18 years in Naples as maestro di cappella (1684–1702) – and he is likely to have written twice that many during that period– gives an indication as to his abundant creativity both there and in Rome, where he thrice lived and worked: as a young man, again while in his forties, and finally when approaching the age of 60. This set provides a rich sampling of Scarlatti’s vast output, with many great recordings not only of the vocal music for which he is most widely acclaimed –the duets, the comic intermezzos, the serenata La Gloria di primavera and the chamber cantatas, a genre he perfected, as well as the sacred oratorios, his Opus 2 sacred concertos and the Vespers and St Cecilia Mass – but also his unjustly neglected instrumental music, including 6 CDs devoted to his keyboard works.
