The Italian solo cantata developed parallel with opera in the Baroque era, but it followed a separate track: more intimate, less grandly virtuosic, with a distinctive language, neither serious nor really comic, and it was related to the pastoral themes that populated the genres. All the cantatas recorded here, and plenty of others, deal with the nymph Clori (Chloris, "of the blooming groves," the myths say) and her long-suffering lovers, Tirsi and Fileno. Several examples by Alessandro Scarlatti and Antonio Vivaldi, ...
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The Italian solo cantata developed parallel with opera in the Baroque era, but it followed a separate track: more intimate, less grandly virtuosic, with a distinctive language, neither serious nor really comic, and it was related to the pastoral themes that populated the genres. All the cantatas recorded here, and plenty of others, deal with the nymph Clori (Chloris, "of the blooming groves," the myths say) and her long-suffering lovers, Tirsi and Fileno. Several examples by Alessandro Scarlatti and Antonio Vivaldi, including the Vivaldi title track Amor, hai vinto (Love has won), are performed from time to time, but generally the genre remains untouched. Austrian historical-performance group Concertino Amarilli has performed a useful service by opening it up a bit. Sample the voice of soprano Marelize Gerber a bit; it has a fluttery quality of a kind that listeners either love or hate. But it's the right size for the repertory, and the instrumental textures and balances, with just one oboe or bassoon...
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