Scarlatti: Magnificat & Dixit Dominus - Concerto Italiano, Alessandrini

Alessandro Scarlatti's choral music hardly gets a look in alongside his hundreds of cantatas and 60-odd operas. But though neither of the two major works in this beautifully realised collection, a Dixit Dominus and a Magnificat, can be accurately dated, both works show the eloquence of Scarlatti's contrapuntal craftsmanship in an unadorned style that looks back to Palestrina and the masters of the late Renaissance in the 16th century.

With just one singer to a part, the performances by Concerto Italiano are beguilingly beautiful, with every fleck of expressive detail exactly placed, and the sound of each syllable lovingly relished. With the ravishing collection of five madrigals that are also included, Rinaldo Alessandrini's group are on more familiar ground, for Scarlatti's illustrative style harks back this time to early Monteverdi - particularly to the madrigals from his first four collections, with a touch of Gesualdo's clashing dissonances thrown in for good measure.

Scarlatti revived the model launched by Marenzio, father of the modern technique of madrigal composition. His brilliant setting of these five texts brings out all their dramatic qualities with great refinement.