By Carlo Vitali [MusicalAmerica.com, 3 October 2006]

FLORENCE, Sept. 15 -- Among the giants of Baroque music prior to Bach and Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti (1660–1725) was probably the most influential and largely quoted composer, although his works are performed less than his successors’. Even during his lifetime, his fine instrumental output was overshadowed by a terrific flood of operas, oratorios, serenatas, cantatas and church music, to say nothing of son Domenico’s success as a creator and a virtuoso on the keyboard.