La Stagione Armonica – Scarlatti: Responsories for Holy Week – Holy Saturday (2018) [FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

La Stagione Armonica – Scarlatti: Responsories for Holy Week – Holy Saturday (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:09:20 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Booklet, Front Cover | © deutsche harmonia mundi

Even according to the liner notes for this album from Alessandro Balestracci and his ensemble La Stagione Armonica, we are not 100% certain that these pieces are indeed the work of Alessandro Scarlatti; but a number of elements, including the period itself, indicate that these anonymous hand-copied manuscripts are indeed reproductions of the Responsories that Scarlatti composed at the start of the 18th century for the Grand Duke of Tuscany. And in any case, one only needs to compare these with other works which are definitely by Scarlatti to begin to suspect that if the composer isn’t him, then whoever it is is doing a damn good impression! Either way, the music gives you the feeling of coming face to face with a flourishing and inspired talent: the writer manages to channel an intense and expressive form, all the while respecting the traditional rules of rigorous counterpoint, which is a recurrent characteristic of Scarlatti’s. It is also interesting to note that these Responsories are put together in such a way that the tonalities vary from one nocturne to the next and from one day to the next, in an ascending pattern, symbolising the progress of Christ’s Passion up to the death which precedes the Resurrection. In order to separate out the different days – Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Black Saturday – the album offers four purely instrumental compositions for organ, thus breaking up the very ample and moving vocal programme; the instrument used is that of the church of Saint Catherine of Padua, dating from the 17th century, heavily altered over the centuries before being recently restored to its ancient glory.

Tracklist:
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 – 1725)
01. Toccata per organo
02. Mottetto Intellige clamorem meum
03. Responsorium Sicut ovis
04. Responsorium Jerusalem, surge
05. Responsorium Plange quasi virgo
06. Fuga del I Tono per organo
07. Mottetto Salvum fac populum tuum
08. Responsorium Recessit pastor noster
09. Responsorium O vos omnes
10. Responsorium Ecce quomodo moritur iustus
11. Fuga del II Tono per organo
12. Mottetto Exurge Domine
13. Responsorium Astiterunt reges
14. Responsorium Aestimatus sum
15. Responsorium Sepulto Domino
16. Fuga del III Tono per organo
17. Mottetto Miserere mei, Deus