Scarlatti: Il martirio di Santa Cecilia

Argenta, Nancy, Beasley, Marco, Fasolis, Diego, I Barocchisti, Landauer, Bernhard, Pennicchi, Marinella

CPO 777258

Until recently all traces of Alessandro Scarlatti’s oratorio Il martirio di Santa Cecilia had been lost; it was not known that it had been lying for decades in the manuscript collection of the Fondation Martin Bodmer in Cologny, near Geneva. After its discovery a performance was held in Zurich, with Karl Böhmer (our booklet author) and Oliver Mattern producing the first modern edition of the work. The interpreters on that occasion are again featured on the present recording. This tragedia sacra may rightly be termed one of the most dramatic and mature oratorios of the Roman baroque, and a Christian martyr’s steadfast faith and virtuous stance founded on Christian Stoicism have rarely been portrayed so uncompromisingly. Although there are no choruses, the action is developed with suspense in long recitative dialogues between the protagonists, and the music’s strongest moments come when the recitatives go over into expressive accompagnati, widely ranging ariosi, and affective arias. Like all of Scarlatti’s gloomy, fatalistic oratorios, this work too culminates in bloody scenes of murder and martyrdom. And, in the words of our booklet author, these scenes form »a one-of-kind ‘showdown,’ an absolute high point in the whole of the baroque oratorio.«

CD

13.05.2008

761203725823