Gli Scarlattisti

The vocal ensemble Gli Scarlattisti was founded in 1995 by Jochen M. Arnold. It comprises professional singers from Germany and Switzerland. The Scarlattisti are usually accompanied by a continuo group of four instrumentalists or the Baroque orchestra Capella Principale (Director: Thorsten Bleich). The group’s first recording was released in 1998, containing the Musikalische Exequien and three motets from the Geistliche Chormusik (1648) by Heinrich Schütz. This was followed by a recording of Monteverdi’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin in the continuo version, as well as vesper psalms by Johann Rosenmüller (Vespro Veneziano) in 2001. A recording of Scarlatti’s ten-part setting of the Stabat Mater was released in 2006 together with Arnold’s Diptychon secundum Iohannem. This was fol lowed by an internationally-acclaimed CD of Latin and English cantatas and anthems by G. F. Handel under the title O praise the Lord on the Carus label, then in 2010 by a recording of the complete motets of J. S. Bach. The ensemble regularly undertakes concert tours, and in recent years has also taken part in radio broadcasts, performed at renowned concert series (Stuttgart, Nürnberg, Berlin, Celle, Frankfurt, Torgau, St. Gallen, among others) and participated in the Deut scher Evangelischer Kirchentag (German Protestant Church Congress) in Hanover and Cologne (TV). The repertoire of Gli Scarlattisti ranges from the Renaissance to the modern. One critic described the ensemble as the “crème de la crème of the early music scene in southern Germany.”