Elizabeth Watts - Alessandro Scarlatti: Con eco d’amore (2015) [Official Digital Download 24/88]

With a voice described as "one of the most beautiful Britain has seen in a generation" (IRR), Elizabeth Watts has established herself among the brightest talents performing today. After training as a chorister at Norwich Cathedral, Elizabeth went on to study archaeology at Sheffield University before attending the Royal College of Music in London.

Her many prizes include the 2006 Kathleen Ferrier Prize (UK), the 2007 Outstanding Young Artist Award at the Cannes MIDEM Classique Awards and the Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize at the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. A former ‘BBC New Generation Artist’, she received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2011 and this recording is supported by the Trust. Her critically praised debut recording of Schubert Lieder was followed by an equally acclaimed disc of Bach Cantatas (harmonia mundi), a programme of Richard Strauss Lieder with Roger Vignoles, and a recording of Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music led by Richard Egarr.

In this selection of rarely heard Alessandro [rather than Domenico] Scarlatti arias from his cantatas, oratorios and operas, she is joined by the acclaimed period instrument ensemble The English Concert led by Laurence Cummings. Elizabeth is currently recording Couperin's 'Lecons de Tenebres' with Lucy Crowe and La Nuova Musica for harmonia mundi.

Tracklist:

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)

Griselda (opera, 1721)
1 Figlio! Tiranno! O Dio! 2’19
Endimione e Cintia (serenata, 1705)
2 Se geloso è il mio core* 3’01
Non so qual più m’ingombra (cantata, 1716)
3 Nacque, col Gran Messia 8’42
Eraclea (opera, 1700)
4 A questo nuovo affanno 3’48
La Santissima Vergine del Rosario (oratorio, 1707)
5 Mentr’io godo in dolce oblio 5’49
Correa nel seno amato (cantata, 1690)
6 Ombre opache 5’23
Erminia (serenata, 1723)
7 Recit.: Qui, dove al germogliar 3’23
8 Aria: Torbido, irato, e nero 5’01
From 7 Arie con tromba sola (1703-08)
9 Con voce festiva* 1’30
Mitridate Eupatore (opera, 1706)
10 Recit.: O vane speme! … Aria: Cara tomba del mio diletto 6’25
Tigrane (opera, 1715)
11 Sussurrando il venticello 6’47
Scipione nelle Spagne (opera, 1714)
12 Ergiti, Amor, su i vanni 2’38
Mitridate Eupatore (opera, 1706)
13 Esci omai** 3’29
14 Dolce stimolo al tuo bel cor 5’19
Venere, Amore e Ragione (serenata, 1706)
15 D’amor l’accesa face 2’43
La Statira (opera, 1690)
16 Io non son di quei campioni 2’05
A battaglia, pensieri (cantata, 1699)
17 Sinfonia — Aria: A battaglia* 3’47

Personnel:
Elizabeth Watts, soprano
* with Mark Bennett, trumpet
** with Huw Daniel, violin
The English Concert
Laurence Cummings, director & continuo