Discography
Bella madre de’ fiori
[Harmonia Mundi]
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
María Cristina Kiehr, soprano
CONCERTO SOAVE
Jean-Marc Aymes, harpsichord, organ & conductor
Whether it be in Palermo, where Alessandro Scarlatti was born, or in Rome, where he worked as a composer, the chamber cantata was inextricably linked with the aristocratic salons of the Italian peninsula in the 1680s and 1690s. These pieces, resolutely pastoral in tone, are set in the green landscapes of the Mediterranean basin, which vibrate to the laments of the turtle-dove and the murmur of springs. All nature is invited to share the grief of lovers: Cloris weeps for Fileno, Orpheus for Eurydice, whilst the gods, the spirits, the stars are omnipresent. Scarlatti was the ideal composer to paint this enchanted realm in music.
This title was released for the first time in 2009
«Kiehr projects the affecting tale of Daliso and Eurilla with all the expressive sensitivity we have come to expect. But the unearthly beauty of that extraordinary voice makes its mark right from the start of Bella Madre, with an exquisitely dolorous melisma on ‘il pianto’. The opening Sinfonia, too, with its ravishingly squeezed suspended dissonances, betokens supremely stylish and sympathetic playing from Concerto Soave.» BBC Music Magazine
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