Fortunato Santini (1778-1861), a Roman composer and priest, was a pioneer of Early Music in the 19th century, meticulously copying and collecting Italian sacred music from the 16th to 18th centuries.
Composer Biography
In 1706, Alessandro Scarlatti became the first musician to be a member of the Accademia dell'Arcadia, an intellectual society in Rome where poets, scholars, and nobles exchanged ideas.
Composition History
Only two of the psalms on this recording, 'Nisi Dominus aedificaverit' and 'Lauda Jerusalem Dominum', can be precisely dated as they originated from Scarlatti's Vespers for Saint Cecilia, premiered in Rome in 1721.
Composer Biography
Alessandro Scarlatti was closely connected to Roman high society, living for a time with sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini and being supported by influential cardinals like Benedetto Pamphilij and Pietro Ottoboni.
Composer Biography
Alessandro Scarlatti, known today primarily as a composer of opera seria, also spent significant periods of his life (1672-1684 and 1702-1708) in Rome in the service of the Church, composing sacred music.
Compositional Technique
Alessandro Scarlatti's sacred music, while rooted around 1700, also incorporates older traditions, such as the use of Gregorian cantus firmi in pieces like 'Dixit Dominus' and 'Ave maris stella'.
Composition History
Alessandro Scarlatti's Vespers for the Blessed Virgin, as presented on this album, is not a single complete work by the composer, but rather a compilation of individual psalm settings assembled by Jörg Jacobi in 2004.
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