Description
Rome is the common denominator of the composers brought together in this recording: Mannelli was born there and carried out all his activities, Alessandro Scarlatti spent several periods of his life there, alternating with Naples, the Saxon Haendel arrived there in 1707 and stayed for most of his Italian stay, while Antonio Caldara took up the position of Prince Ruspoli’s chapel master in 1709.
Everyone found themselves, therefore, in the baroque city that cultivated its splendour, thanks to the patronage of the great patrician families; still visible today in the very configuration of so many squares and palaces, it survives in the archives and libraries that give the measure of numerous leading personalities, protagonists of a rich musical everyday life. The poles around which this revolved can be identified in the musical chapels of the many Roman churches on the one hand, in the service of the noble houses or the small cardinal courts on the other: definitely liturgical music in the first case, of a more varied genre in the second, in any case bound to a particular practice by the presence of the papal court.
