Father & Son: Works by Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti

Product Information

Domenico Scarlatti composed operas, ballets, and various other works. But pride of place in his output must be given to his 555 sonatas, which together constitute one of the greatest sets of compositions written by anyone, anywhere, and at any time. (Please do not expect a measured critical tone from me regarding Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas. Along with Ann-Margret, I have loved them since I was a child and my affection sees no sign of waning.) By 1700 political instability at the court in Naples led him to look elsewhere, first to Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici in 1702. He received a few opera contracts – resulting in the composition of the operas he regarded as his best (Lucio Manlio, and Il Gran Tamerlano). These lost works are the subject of a fascinating correspondence between composer and his patron. But Florence did not offer him long-term work and Rome became his base again, with employment at San Maria Maggiore. In 1706 he was at the peak of his activity in Rome, and was elected to the Arcadian Academy, one of few musicians to be so honoured, along with Corelli and Pasquini. Because he never married, the initial bulk of his estate was bequeathed to his niece. However, several amendments to his will distributed between charities, friends, servants, and relations, much of his estate. An art collection which had been owned by Handel was auctioned off in 1760 and was said to have included ten prints and seventy paintings; other paintings had already been given away in the will. During this time, Zachow began allowing Handel to take over some of his duties in the church and he performed on the organ regularly. Handle began composing for both voice and instruments around the age of nine. After that, he composed at least one service each week successfully for three years. Many believe that it only took Handle three to four years to surpass Zachow in terms of talent and ability. Nonetheless, Handel grew bored, needing something more challenging. After much consideration, it was decided that Handel would go to Berlin.

We mark the death of the composer Domenico Scarlatti 261 years ago today, on July 23, 1757 in the Spanish capital of Madrid.This is where baroque music is so exciting. There is so much that we don’t know, and so much that was left to performers to interpret. Percussion is a known unknown – we know it was used more often than stated in the score, but not quite in which way, so you can introduce instruments with a vague stamp of authority. I felt Con voce festiva was crying out for tambourine, so we ask our percussionist to bring one. I was delighted when he turned up with not one but a boxful for Laurence and me to choose from. Early music has a lot to offer anyone inclined to geekiness. Laurence Cummings and I spent many hours together dreaming up spectacular things for me to get my tonsils around Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) was born in Naples, the sixth child of Alessandro Scarlatti. Father Alessandro took over the musical training of his son, and he arranged for his son’s appointment as organist at the viceregal chapel at Naples before the boy had turned 16. Handel’s father passed away in February 1697, not even two weeks before his own birthday when he would turn twelve years old. As it was German custom for family and friends to write funeral odes for such a consequential member of the community such as Georg, Handel absolved his responsibility with a poem, signing his name along with a dedication to the liberal arts, in acquiescence of his father’s inclinations. Georg had seen to it that Handel’s education would be provided for. At the time of his father’s death Handle was studying at either the Latin School or the Lutheran Gymnasium in Halle, but it is not known for certain. Young George Frideric Handel Handel traveled to Rome where he composed, for the Roman clergy, what could only be referred to as sacred music. He was unable to compose or play operas, as opera had been banned temporarily by the Pope inside the Papal States. From this era comes Handel’s famous Dixit Cominus, which was produced in 1707. Furthermore, he composed numerous cantatas, which are vocal compositions, in reposeful style for gatherings of a musical nature which took place in the cardinal’s palaces, such as Carol Colonna, Peitro Ottoboni, and Benedetto Pamphili. For the next two decades over half the new operas given at Naples were by Scarlatti, producing over 40 works, which were first performed at the Viceregal Palazzo Reale and then at the public theatre of S. Bartolomeo, where Scarlatti was employed as the director along with nine singers, five instrumentalists and a copyist. In contrast to contemporary five-act Venetian operas, which continued to rely upon mythological characters and stage machinery, Scarlatti's shorter three-act 'Drammi per Musica' centered on the characterization of kings and confidants, lovers and servants. Il Pirro e Demetrio (1694) and La caduta de' Decemviri (1697) were particularly successful.

In 1717 he was granted leave of absence to visit Rome, where his final series of operas was produced, this period marking his full artistic maturity. His last full-scale opera, his 114th, was “Griselda”, produced in 1721. He also wrote a large amount of church music including an orchestral mass for St Cecilia’s Day and, in 1721, a pastoral to mark the accession of Pope Innocent XIII. He returned to Naples either in late 1722 or early 1723. There are also abundant echoes of the festivities of the Spanish court, of the wind instruments and drums of state processions, of the horns and oboes of the royal hunt, of fireworks and artillery salvos, and of the music from the royal barges that floated over the waters of the Tagus during the summer embarkations at Aranjuez. Handel began laying the foundation for the twelve Chandos Anthems, his upcoming choral compositions, in 1717 when he took the position of house composer in Middlesex at Cannons. It was reported that these Psalms, or anthems, as they are referred to, were directly related to Handel’s oratorios, in much the same way as his Italian cantatas related to his operas. These were described as being superb illustrations of his more significant works. Acis and Galatea, another work of Handel’s which he had written for the owner of Cannons, the First Duke of Chandos, was his most performed work, at least during his lifetime. Winton Dean, who was a twentieth century English musicologist most known for his research concerning Handel’s life and works, wrote that the music (of Acis and Galatea) makes one catch their breath, disturbing their memory. Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) und sein Sohn Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) sind heute die beiden bekanntesten Vertreter der im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert europaweit tätigen Musikerfamilie Scarlatti. Alessandro war einer der Hauptexponenten der neapolitanischen Schule und zu Lebzeiten besonders geschätzt für seine Vokalmusik (Opern, Oratorien, Kantaten u.a.). Domenico ist heute vor allem durch seine zahlreichen Kompositionen für Tasteninstrumente berühmt, die hauptsächlich in Spanien entstanden. Hier werden Kantaten der beiden effektvoll mit Sonaten Domenicos kombiniert. The investigation continues and those arrested have not had a chance to mount a defence to the accusations or their detentions.Scarlatti was born in Palermo, then part of the Kingdom of Sicily. He is generally said to have been a pupil of Giacomo Carissimi in Rome, and some theorize that he had some connection with northern Italy because his early works seem to show the influence of Stradella and Legrenzi. The production at Rome of his opera Gli Equivoci nell sembiante (1679) gained him the support of Queen Christina of Sweden (who at the time was living in Rome), and he became her Maestro di Cappella. In February 1684 he became 'Maestro di Cappella to the viceroy of Naples, perhaps through the influence of his sister, an opera singer, who might have been the mistress of an influential Neapolitan noble. Here he produced a long series of operas, remarkable chiefly for their fluency and expressiveness, as well as other music for state occasions. In the late 1680s Scarlatti entered into direct relations with Prince Ferdinando de” Medici, who availed himself of his collaboration both for works intended for the theater of the Medici villa at Pratolino and other theaters in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and for the composition of sacred music intended for special occasions solemnly celebrated at court. After the revival of the operas, already performed in Rome, Tutto il mal non vien per nuocere in Florence and Il Pompeo in Livorno, in 1689 Ferdinando commissioned him for Pratolino to compose the music for a comedy, perhaps La serva favorita on a libretto by Giovanni Cosimo Villifranchi. In 1698 L”Anacreonte was performed at Pratolino, followed by Flavio Cuniberto (1702), Arminio (1703), Turno Aricino (1704), Lucio Manlio (1706), and Il gran Tamerlano (1706). In 1702 Scarlatti left Naples and did not return until the Spanish domination had been superseded by that of the Austrians. In the interval he enjoyed the patronage of Ferdinando de' Medici, for whose private theatre near Florence he composed operas, and of Cardinal Ottoboni, who made him his maestro di cappella, and procured him a similar post at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in 1703.

Most singers come across him in books of Arie Antiche (Old Songs) when learning to sing, and his arias are regularly murdered by well-meaning, reedy voiced wannabe singers at music festivals. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we never hear these arias as they were originally written, with an orchestra and a professional singer. So, a few years ago I started researching his music. Alessandro had fixed his hopes on Ferdinando de’ Medici, the eldest son of the reigning Grand Duke of Tuscany, an admirer of Alessandro’s music and himself a gifted amateur musician and composer. Incidentally, the bisexual Ferdinando liked to surround himself with handsome and musically gifted young men not only for his love of music. His pious father Cosimo III was constantly worried about what he regarded as his son’s indecent dealings with musicians and actors, but hardly managed to correct him. In Venice, the Las Vegas of the time, Ferdinando is said to have contracted the venereal disease that led to his untimely death on the 30th of October, 1713. But the Tuscan trip did not yield a permanent position at the Florentine court for either Alessandro or Domenico. Even the musical connoisseur Ferdinando became increasingly critical of Alessandro’s style, which he disapprovingly characterised as ‘studied’ (‘studiato’) and ‘melancholic’ (‘melanconico’).During the Baroque, several families made their mark in the world of music. In Italy there were few families more influential than the Scarlattis. In addition, Scarlatti also composed at least 17 separate sinfonias and a harpsichord concerto. He exerted a major influence on such Portuguese and Spanish contemporaries as Carlos de Seixas and Antonio Soler. It was the following year, 1706 to be precise, in which Handel headed to Italy, where he would end up composing many works. He had been invited by Ferdinando de Medici who was very much interested in opera and dreamed of making Florence the musical capital of Italy. As such, he wished to attract current leading talents. As a result, Handel met many of the greatest Italian musicians while traveling in Italy over the next four years, such as Alessandro Scarlatti and his son Domenico, Arangelo Corelli, and Antonio Salvi, a librettist with which Handel collaborated at a time thereafter.