JOHANN ADOLF HASSE (1699-1783): Laudate pueri, NICOLA PORPORA (1686-1768): De profundis, BALDASSARE GALUPPI (1706-1785): Dixit Dominus.

Description: Works written for female choirs and orchestra by the composers when they were heads of music at one of the four famous Ospedali of Venice. Porpora's 1744 work starts not literally De profundis but in radiant C major and demands extreme vocal virtuosity; Hasse's Laudate is from the late 1730s and is less playful than Porpora's while the Classical Dixit of Galuppi (1774) closes a scintillating program (the latter two are first recordings). Maria Grazia Schiavo, Emanuela Galli (sopranos), José Maria Lo Monaco (alto), Vocal Concert Dresden, Dresdner Instrumental-Concert; Peter Kopp.