Alessandro Scarlatti composed two oratorios about the Hebrew widow Judith’s assassination of the Assyrian warrior Holofernes. An elaborate version written for Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome in 1693 or 1694 has been recorded a few times; but a more obscure and smaller-scale version dates from 1697 and only survives in a manuscript now in the Rowe Library at King’s College, Cambridge. Featuring only three voices, strings and continuo, this is given a patchy performance by the Ensemble Baroque de Nice, whose playing is occasionally ragged (the Sinfonia) but at best is sinewy and richly rhetorical, and successfully evocative of softer moods (for instance, as the Nurse lulls the unsuspecting Oloferne to sleep). The soloists do a creditable job of conveying Scarlatti’s imaginatively and skilfully written short arias and duets (Giuditta’s “Non ti curo” is ravishing). The warts-and-all live performance is uneven but honest.

Ars Lyrica Houston’s debut disc contains Scarlatti’s La concettione della Beata Vergine (Rome, 1703), which recycled music from his earlier oratorio I dolori di Maria sempre Vergine (Naples, 1693; now lost). Scored for four solo voices, two violins and continuo, this is a fervent piece of Catholic propaganda in which Heresy and the Serpent squabble with Grace about the plausibility of the Immaculate Conception, until the Archangel Michael intervenes and sets the record straight. The compact work is skilfully performed by the Houstonians. The group’s director Matthew Dirst contributes an impressive harpsichord toccata, and Barrett Sills plays a fine cello sonata in C minor with exemplary skill and taste. The cantata Euridice dall’Inferno (1699) depicts the heart-rending lament of Eurydice as she hopes that her beloved Orpheus will use his lyre to liberate her from Hades. The continuo group plays with sensitivity and Melissa Givens gives an impassioned performance of strongly characterised and eloquent music (although her voice is a bit strident in arias). These two discs offer plenty to confirm that Scarlatti fully deserves his gradual rehabilitation.