Considerable pleasure Emma Kirkby sings music by Cataldo Amodei - reviewed by PATRIC STANDFORD '... a CD of rare beauty ...'

If you can be swept away with delight by the late seventeenth century's decorative clarity, economy, and serenity, the unrivalled voice of Emma Kirkby and the discovery of an unfamiliar Sicilian composer of sacred and devotional music will certainly provide considerable pleasure.

Cataldo Vito Amodei, born in 1649, showed such a remarkable early talent as a singer that the rival aristocratic salons of the time fought to employ his genius. He soon tired of the limitations of the island, and went to Naples at the age of twenty, securing enviably high positions as choirmaster and teacher before the neglect of his many heavy duties earned him dismissal and left him free to compose, which he did to great acclaim. He died in 1693, and the most famous musicians in Naples played at his funeral.

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