Handel’s cantatas represent an important musical repertoire that until recently has been little known. Consisting of about 100 separate works, most were written over a period of a few years for private performance in Italy.

They range from musical miniatures containing only two arias connected by recitative and accompanied by continuo to larger works with named characters, a dramatic story, and rich instrumental forces. Telling more often than not about the pangs of love, these are intimate works, with texts frequently written by (and sometimes about) members of the privileged audience for which they were composed.

The project of Marco Vitale to record all of Handel’s cantatas is thrilling. The continuo cantatas have never been recorded in full and many have never been recorded at all. Thus, this project will bring to life largely unknown music by one of the world’s greatest composers. This CD features the great soprano Roberta Mameli, an acclaimed specialist of the Handel repertoire and it includes the wonderful cantatas “Notte placida e cheta” and “Armida abbandonata”.