This album offers a fine introduction to Scarlatti’s dramatic muse, as expressed in his chamber cantatas. Elisabeth Scholl has a beautifully refined voice, and her innate musicality and keen attention to the texts are superbly complemented by Modo Antiquo’s sensuous, varied and detailed accompaniments under Sardelli’s direction. The performances are mostly refined and understated, yet without ignoring the drama.

Their qualities can be heard to best advantage, for example, in the almost mesmerising performance of “Vieni, o notte”, the first aria in the Serenata; music and performance are poised between calm and torment, with a gentle yet piercing jab on “martiri”. Similar qualities can be sensed in a fine performance of L’Orfeo.

The performances are less successful in expressing heroism or violence. This weakness is especially apparent in Il Nerone. The text presents the Emperor Nero as a cardboard villain, boasting and basking in his own evil; the music suggests an aggressive, somewhat hysterical performance. Scholl and her accompanists are aware of the emotions expressed here, but their performance nonetheless sounds too civilised and polite. The heroic posturing in Gia lusingato might also have been projected more firmly, though the gentler passages receive affectively lyrical performances.

That said, even Nerone has its fine moments, and the disc can be strongly recommended for fine, moving performances of the Serenata and L’Orfeo (in the latter work, even the harsher aria, “Se mirando”, receives a charged, dramatic performance). URI GOLOMB