Il Giardino Armonico with Cecilia Bartoli performing the Vivaldi aria Di due rai languir costante from an unknown opera, which is absolutely dripping with the sound of flageolets, an irresistible and wonderful sound.

And later on in an aria from Farnace some of the most miraculous quiet playing from an ensemble I've heard anywhere.

Marc Andre Hamelin playing Haydn piano sonatas.

Magic. Still my favourite, I think.

... one of eleven various CDs (this one has the most recent repertoire of them all, if I recall correctly) recently arrived from Berkshire Record Outlet all for more or less 30 quid, as you chaps would say.

Have people heard this, and what do they think?  I'm quite impressed so far.  Also, any other recommendations for compelling Scarlatti (no piano, please, unless you really mean it)?  Aside from this disc all I have, I think, is Landowska, which is what it is, but it isn't what it isn't, and I desperately need more.  Scarlatti is one of those composers I know I love, but somehow I haven't gotten around to hearing much of.

I initially got interested in Scarlatti because of Ivo Pogorelich's playing, but inzwischen I agree that it's infinitely better on harpsichord.

Scott Ross's compilation of the compleat Scarlatti is actually not bad (from what I've listened to thus far)! Just because it's compleat doesn't mean it's workaday. Unless you mean he recorded one work a day. Which could be.

I'm very much for the Parrott version - indeed I haven't heard anything since which quite does it for me to the same extent. For me one voice per part is a much more satisfactory way to bring out the various vocal and instrumental colours; the harmony also 'speaks' more clearly. (As true in Monteverdi as it is in Bach.) I have the Gardiner but listen to it very rarely. It's a fine performance but just to me it's a performance of some other piece... the vocal styles I find much less appropriate to how I understand the music. The vocal styles for Parrott aren't always ideal for me either (Rogers could still do that ornamentation like no one else, some of the then-younger singers like Joseph Cornwell are also very fine and Emma Kirkby is at her very best; still, there's a bit much vibrato here and there for my taste (yes, really!)) - still, the overall sound and dramatic but undramatised approach are closer to how I imagine it than anything else I've heard.

I can't hear the Magnificat and Lauda Jerusalem at the high pitch any more, either...

The thing about the Scott Ross for me is that although not much of it is as stunning as Staier at his best none of it is actually inadequate. (Or if there was a seriously dodgy one in there it just happened to be one I didn't pay enough attention to when I listened to the whole thing over a couple of weeks some months back.) So if you do want to hear the whole lot then I can certainly recommend it. I can also heartily recommend that as an experience. You're crossing a wide meadow rather than perusing a handful of orchids.

Is nice.