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

La Stagione Armonica – Alessandro 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 | 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:
01. Carlo Steno Rossi – Toccata per organo (05:06)
02. La Stagione Armonica – Mottetto Intellige clamorem meum (03:16)
03. La Stagione Armonica – Responsorium Sicut ovis (04:51)
04. La Stagione Armonica – Responsorium Jerusalem, surge (04:40)
05. La Stagione Armonica – Responsorium Plange quasi virgo (05:47)
06. Carlo Steno Rossi – Fuga del I Tono per organo (03:14)
07. La Stagione Armonica – Mottetto Salvum fac populum tuum (03:47)
08. La Stagione Armonica – Responsorium Recessit pastor noster (04:09)
09. La Stagione Armonica – Responsorium O vos omnes (04:15)
10. La Stagione Armonica – Responsorium Ecce quomodo moritur iustus (06:37)
11. Carlo Steno Rossi – Fuga del II Tono per organo (03:04)
12. La Stagione Armonica – Mottetto Exurge Domine (02:57)
13. La Stagione Armonica – Responsorium Astiterunt reges (02:19)
14. La Stagione Armonica – Responsorium Aestimatus sum (03:31)
15. La Stagione Armonica – Responsorium Sepulto Domino (04:34)
16. Carlo Steno Rossi – Fuga del III Tono per organo (02:40)
17. La Stagione Armonica – Mottetto Miserere mei, Deus (04:33)

Personnel:
La Stagione Armonica
Sergio Balestracci, Dirigent

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