Italian Sonatas and Cantatas
“Concentus VII capture the simple directness of this idyllic music, with well-chosen instrumental sonatas to keep the ears fresh between cantatas”
BBC Radio 3 CD Review
Featured on BBC Radio 3 In Tune, BBC Radio 3 CD Review, Radio Marconi and iTunes New and Noteworthy
George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) Mi palpita il cor
soprano, oboe and basso continuo
George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) Pensieri notturni di Filli (Nel dolce dell’oblio)
soprano, recorder and basso continuo
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) Filli tu sai s’io t’amo
soprano, recorders and basso continuo
George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) Sonata pour l’Hautbois Solo
oboe and continuo
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) Bella s’io t’amo
soprano, recorder and continuo
Francesco Mancini (1672–after 1737) Sonata no. 1 in D Minor
recorder and continuo
Antonio Lotti (1666–1740) Ti sento, O Dio bendato
soprano, oboe & continuo
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Mi palpita il cor HWV 132
soprano oboe and continuo
Aria S’un di madora
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759)
Nel dolce dell’ oblio H134
soprano recorder and continuo
Aria Giacche il sonno
We recently released our debut album with Resonus Classics, featuring works by Handel, A. Scarlatti, Lotti and Mancini.
Et in Arcadia Ego explores the works of composers associated with the Italian literary society Pontificia Accademia degli Arcadi (The Academy of Arcadia), established in 1690 in memory of the great patron of the arts, Queen Christina of Sweden, who moved to Rome after abdicating her throne in 1654. The Academy promoted a lucid and direct style, inspired by the simple lives of peasants – an idealised world of rural innocence peopled with shepherds and nymphs and burbling streams; in short a recreation of an imagined Arcadian Golden Age replete with classical forms and mythological themes.
Among the works featured here are tow of Handel’s best loved cantatas— the extravagant and virtuosic Mi Palpita il Cor with its languid, indulgent opening aria and tempestuous finale punctuated with impassioned recitave, and the pastoral Pensieri notturni di Filli (Nel dolce del’oblio), both dating from composer’s time in Rome. Alessandro Scarlatti’s Bella s’io t’amoincludes a recently discovered opening recitative and is a rare example of an Italian cantata featuring a solo recorder obbligato. The cantatas are interspersed with well chosen solo sonatas and the album concludes with Lotti’s fiery cantata Ti sento, O Dio bendato.
The cantatas by Lotti, Alessandro Scarlatti and Handel on this CD are offered in practical performing editions by Green Man Press, which include the texts and translations.
recording engineer and producer: Adrian Hunter
recorded at St John’s Church Loughton Essex August 26th-29th 2013