Ensemble Vocale di Napoli & Antonio Spagnolo (Remastered) Ensemble Vocale di Napoli & Antonio Spagnolo

• Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 - 1725): Missa Pro Defunctis:
• 1 Scarlatti: Missa Pro Defunctis: 1.Requiem introitus 05:06
• 2 Scarlatti: Missa Pro Defunctis: 2.Kyrie 01:46
• 3 Scarlatti: Missa Pro Defunctis: 3.In memoria Aeterna graduale 02:39
• 4 Scarlatti: Missa Pro Defunctis: 4.Domine JesuChriste offertorium 06:18
• 5 Scarlatti: Missa Pro Defunctis: 5.Sanctus 03:13
• 6 Scarlatti: Missa Pro Defunctis: 6.Agnus dei 02:52
• 7 Scarlatti: Missa Pro Defunctis: 7.Lux Aeterna communio 03:46
• Pomponio Nenna (1556 - 1608): In Monte Oliveti:
• 8 Nenna: In Monte Oliveti 03:00
• Caligaverunt:
• 9 Nenna: Caligaverunt 03:20
• Giovanni Maria Trabaci (1575 - 1647): Cum jucunditate:
• 10 Trabaci: Cum jucunditate 03:03
• Gesualdo de Venosa (1566 - 1613): Ave dulcissima Maria:
• 11 de Venosa: Ave dulcissima Maria 03:57
• O vos omnes:
• 12 de Venosa: O vos omnes 03:00
• Giovanni Salvatore (1611 - 1688): Peccantem me quotidie:
• 13 Salvatore: Peccantem me quotidie 04:10
• Alessandro Scarlatti: Salve Regina:
• 14 Scarlatti: Salve Regina 07:28
• Total Runtime 53:38

Info for Ensemble Vocale di Napoli & Antonio Spagnolo (Remastered)

The sacred music featured in this recording exemplifies the singular vitality and quality of composers active in Naples from the mid-sixteenth century to the 'beginning of the eighteenth century: it is the music of the Spanish vice-kingdom, of a great, almost "colonial" culture, now in tune now autonomous from that of the dominant power; a culture gripped by a thousand determinant connections, rather, to the other cultural phenomenologies of the Italian peninsula.

This listening to the pages of authors little, or not at all, known outside the specialized sphere leads us to give an accomplished, even if essential, identity to the space of great religious architectures, which are one of the best-known aspects of Neapolitan Baroque art, alongside the other - and even better-known - art form of the time, painting; the one that flourished especially after Caravaggio's enlivening passage through Naples, with its shocking linguistic and content novelties.

But, getting out of that cliché that links music, architecture and painting to the detriment of other more complex, and perhaps elusive, connections, it is worth remembering that in the background of this musical activity - or perhaps vice versa - operated Basile, the author of the "Pentamerone," Marino, the author of the "Adonis," Della Porta, fascinating scientist and playwright, and finally Vico.

Given the still settling stage of the studies, all the insights, which allow to place scientists, poets, musicians etc. in a unique cultural framework of Spanish Naples, must be passed to further critical scrutiny. It is to be reconstructed, for example, the entire scientific milieu of the city's culture, so as to be able to reconnect in a single discourse, albeit with its obvious and indispensable deviations, the research of Della Porta with the theoretical elaborations of the musicians. And the connections between popular culture and high culture, already identified by Fabris in "poor" sacred music and "aristocratic" sacred music, must be identified even in the transition between the various art forms: what connections there are between the popular, even magical, of Basile and the popular vein of certain sacred music, which escapes the normalizing dictates of the provisions of the Council of Trent is yet to be clarified, on a wide scale; but certainly they are operative connections. ...

Ensemble Vocale di Napoli
Antonio Spagnolo, musical direction

Please Note: We offer this album in its native sampling rate of 48 kHz, 24-bit. The provided 96 kHz version was up-sampled and offers no audible value!

Digitally remastered

Antonio Spagnolo
A graduate in singing, he completed his studies in composition and choral conducting with Maestro Enrico Buondonno.

He participated in the "R. Goitre" Conducting Courses with Giovanni Acciai and at the Early Music Seminars in Florence with the group "Pro Cantione Antiqua of London."

He served on the judging committee of the Alghero International Choral Singing Competition, being awarded the Silver Diapason in 1991.

He collaborated with M° René Clemencic on the recording for Ricordi-Fonit Cetra of Pergolesi's "Tre Mottetti" and Giordanello's Oratorio "La Passione," for Opus 111, with M° Alessandro de Marchi conducting. He conducted in November 1998 and December 2000 the Scarlatti Orchestra of Naples in Alessandro Scarlatti's "Messa di S.Cecilia" for soloists, choir and orchestra. In 2008 he conducted the first Italian performance of Arvo Pärt's "Passio."

In September 2009 he was invited to conduct the atelier of Musica Veneziana, in the "International Choral Music Weeks" of Europa Cantat.

He has been leading the Ensemble since 1984.

Booklet for Ensemble Vocale di Napoli & Antonio Spagnolo (Remastered)