ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI (1660-1725)

Lamentazioni per la Settimana Santa

CD I [57:25]

1 Prologus 0:52

Lectio Prima Feria V in Coena Domini
2 Incipit lamentatio – ALEPH (Canon in diapason) – Quomodo sedet sola civitas
(Largo assai)
3 BETH (Canon in sub diapason diapente) – Plorans ploravit
4 GHIMEL (Canon in diapente) – Migravit Iudas
5 DALETH (Canon in diatesseron) – Viae Sion (Largo)
6 HE (Canon in sub diatesseron) – Facti sunt
7 Ierusalem convertere

Lettione del Mercoledì Santo
8 IOD – Manum suam
9 CAPH – Omnis populus (Largo)
10 LAMED (Largo) – O vos omnes
11 MEM – De excelso (Grave)
12 NUN (Largo) – Vigilavit iugum (Staccato, e grave)
13 Ierusalem convertere

Lectio Prima Feria vi Maioris Hebdomade
14 De lamentatione (Largo assai) – HETH – Cogitavit Dominus
15 TETH – Defixae sunt
16 IOD – Sederunt in terra (Largo)
17 CAPH – Defecerunt prae lacrymis (Largo)
18 Ierusalem convertere

CD II [55:51]

Lectio Secunda Feria vi in Parasceve
1 LAMED (Largo) – Matribus suis
2 MEM – Cui comparabo
3 NUN – Prophetae tui (Allegro)
4 SAMECH – Plauserunt super te
5 Ierusalem convertere

Prima Lettione del Venerdì Santo
6 De lamentatione (Largo) – HETH (Largo) – Misericordiae Domini (Largo)
7 HETH – Novi diluculo
8 HETH – Pars mea Dominus
9 TETH (Largo) – Bonus est Dominus
10 TETH – Bonum est praestolari
11 TETH – Bonum est viro
12 IOD – Sedebit solitarius (Larghetto)
13 IOD – Ponet in pulvere (Largo)
14 IOD – Dabit percutienti (Spiritoso)
15 Ierusalem convertere

Seconda Lettione del Venerdì Santo
16 ALEPH (Largo) – Quomodo obscuratum
17 BETH – Filii Sion
18 GHIMEL – Sed et lamiae
19 DALETH – Adhaesit lingua (Largo)
20 HE – Qui vescebantur
21 VAU – Et maior
22 Ierusalem convertere

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About this CD

Alessandro Scarlatti in Italy, like Marc-Antoine Charpentier and later François Couperin in France, brought the musical form of the Lamentations of Jeremiah to a state of dramatic intensity, a complement to the religious ritual which even in the first decade of the 18th century had barely changed since the Middle Ages. One of the special characteristics of Scarlatti’s Lamentations is the skill with which he treats the melodic line, which he reduces to what is bare and essential stylistically, resisting the temptation to indulge himself in operatic writing, preferring instead “madrigalistic” effects.

It was around 1707 that Scarlatti composed his six settings of the Lamentations (two each for the three days leading up to Easter Sunday; although by forming part of the service of Matins they would be sung on the previous evening) and it was not until the Umbrian violinist and director Enrico Gatti went to the Bolognese Eremo di Ronzano with his Ensemble Aurora that these Lamentations received their first complete recording.

The two soloists called upon by Gatti to be backed by his instrumental group (one which includes keyboard player Guido Morini) were soprano Cristina Miatello and tenor Gian Paolo Fagotto. The church music of Alessandro Scarlatti (like his operatic, oratorio and solo cantata work) is receiving increasingly more attention from musicians and the public so the transfer to Glossa of Enrico Gatti’s 1992 recording (including Gatti’s essay on the subject) can be warmly welcomed, as it joins more recent examples of Gatti’s work in Bach and Vivaldi.