If composer Benedetto Marcello is remembered for one thing, it is primarily for his literary satire Il teatro alla moda (freely translated "The theater according to fashion"), published anonymously in 1720. In it, he wittily denounces abuses within the Venetian opera of his day. Money-hungry impresarios skimping on rehearsal time (after all, time is money). Singers who indulge in endless virtuosity.
And to make matters worse, composers who flout the classical rules of composition. Even contemporary Antonio Vivaldi indirectly gets a slap in the face. How should it be done in his eyes? Listen to the four solo cantatas and the five sinfonias on this album. Pleasing virtuosity is, as is to be expected, far from it. Rather, Marcello focuses on the best possible expression of the diction and emotional value of the texts (mostly his own poetry). A wonderful example is the opening recitative of the cantata Qual Turbine Improvviso, in which Marcello aptly captures in notes the howling of the wind during a storm at sea. Marcello was certainly not a musical innovator (chromaticism and sharp dissonances are virtually absent from his music). Yet in his cantatas and sinfonias he managed to make surprising discoveries within the conventions of his time. Soprano Nuria Rial and ensemble La Floridiana provide a wonderful illustration of what Marcello's music must have sounded like in the Venetian patrician homes of his contemporaries. (JWvR)more
