Seasons > 2006-07 Season > Concerts >

Scarlatti and the Flute

Thursday October 12, 2006, 8:00 pm

Sonatas and concertos for recorder and strings

Alessandro Scarlatti was born in Palermo in 1660. At the age of twelve he went to Rome, where he was able to develop his talent in an extremely varied musical environment. He enjoyed a certain celebrity throughout his life, and lived in many important cities of the Italian peninsula. It was probably during his second stay in Naples (around 1708) that he composed the flute sonatas that we propose for this recording project. In order to really understand the instrumental art of Alessandro Scarlatti, it is essential to study the collection compiled in the nineteenth century by the abbot Fortunato Santini. This collection is kept at the diocesan library of Münster, one of the world’s richest music libraries. In it we find works for flute, as well as for various instrumental groupings.

Upon examination of the Münster manuscripts, it is apparent that the flute part demands great technical skill and a gift for solo playing. Furthermore, the soloist must have the ability to concerter, that is, to enter into a musical debate with the other members of the ensemble and to improvise, with ornamentations that are unrestrained, yet always appropriate. The lively and vigorous exchanges of the flute part, like the first violin elsewhere, suggest that Corelli was a source of inspiration. In recent years we have examined Corelli’s art of ornamentation; the music of Alessandro Scarlatti now seems to be the perfect vehicle for demonstrating Italian music of the early eighteenth century. (FC)