Alessandro Scarlatti: Cantatas

22 October marks the 300th anniversary of the death of Alessandro Scarlatti, the leading figure in Neapolitan vocal music at the turn of the 18th century. Unlike his son Domenico, who devoted much of his musical life to the keyboard, Alessandro was a master of vocal art, whether in opera (of which he composed dozens) or in secular or sacred cantatas. He particularly excelled in a genre that was very popular in Italian courts, the cantata di camera, for solo voice and small instrumental ensemble. Accompanied by members of the Chandos Baroque Players, soprano Nancy Argenta presents a superb selection, from Là dove a Mergellina (one of Scarlatti's last works, full of harmonic and ornamental oddities) to the pastoral O di Betlemme altera, composed especially for Christmas.