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To complement the gradual release of Soler’s complete harpsichord sonatas (the first volume was released last month), Brilliant Classics presents the semi-sacred side of Soler’s prolific output with six concertos for the combination of two organs which was relatively common in large churches of the time. Soler was a priest in the Hieronymite Order, and master of music at the cathedral in Lérida, but also teacher and composer to the Spanish Royal family. These concertos reflect the dancing vitality and Italian influence brought by such patronage: the organists who gave their first performance would likely have been Soler himself and his prince, Infante Don Gabriel. The propinquity of two suitable instruments being now unusual on the Iberian peninsula, Pieter van Dijk and Maurizio Croci have recorded the concertos at the church of San Giacomo del Carmine at Imola

Having scaled (for Brilliant Classics) the musical Everest that is Domenico Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas, Pieter-Jan Belder now turns his attention to his Spanish contemporary, Antonio Soler. Solers productivity was hardly less astonishing, especially as a monk at the abbey of El Escorial required to spend much of his time either in contemplation or directing the abbeyÂ’s music. In this capacity he would most likely have met Scarlatti, as the latter accompanied his royal patrons to their summer retreat at El Escorial. SolerÂ’s keyboard sonatas are also bipartite constructions, with new twists of harmony and invention around each unexpected corner. This first volume is completed by one of the most curious of all harpsichord works, a Fandango with a slowly evolving, hypnotic effect that has more than once been compared to Ravel's Boléro.

Antonio Francisco Xavier Joseph Soler was born in 1729 in the Spanish province of Tarragona, the son of an army musician. His earliest musical instruction came from his father, who took him to the Abbey of Montserrat, where he was encouraged to join the choir at the age of six. Here, he became highly proficient on the organ, and studied composition. It may have been this early exposure to religious life that made the young Soler to decide to spend the rest of his life in the church. He accepted various musical posts in the church, including organist at El Escorial. He became a novice there in 1752, deacon, priest and chapel master – the latter position after 1757. He was requested by King Carlos III to teach his two sons Gabriel and Antonio. Antonio was the more musical of the princes, and for him Soler composed his 6 concertos for two organs.

Soler came into contact with Domenico Scarlatti who was employed by the Royal Family, and whose music was exclusive to the court and banned from performance outside of the palace. Soler’s 150 keyboard works (written for Prince Gabriel) are dazzling affairs, and test the harpsichords and fortepianos of the time to their limits. Although the influence of Scarlatti can be detected, these are truly Spanish works, and exude Iberian colour and rhythms.

Eighteen sonatas by one of the most enigmatic but important keyboard composers of the 18th Century.

Pieter-Jan Belder’s zeal for the rediscovery of 17th-century keyboard music continues apace with this, the third volume in the first-ever projected complete set of the harpsichord sonatas by Padre Antonio Soler, contemporary and rival of Domenico Scarlatti. Like Scarlatti’s examples, these sonatas are intensely colourful, alternately exuberant and poetic, and always distinctive.

Soler (1729-83) was born in Olot, Catalunia, and became a monk at Escurial where he was organist and composer. A keyboard soloist of prodigious skills, he composed many sonatas for harpsichord (although not one has survived in his hand), organ works a Requiem, piano quintets and concertos for 2 keyboards, and incidental music to plays by Calderon and other 17th century Spanish playwrights.

Much research has been carried out to establish accurate performing editions of Soler’s music. The editions used in these recordings are by Professor Frederick Marvin who researched the extensive library and archives of Montserrat Monastery, El Escorial and Bibloteca de Catalunia in Barcelona in the 1940s through to the 1960s, and the edition by Padre Samuel Rubio.

New recordings.

Booklet notes by Soler authority Frederick Marvin.

New installment in a successful and unique series, the complete Keyboard Sonatas of Antonio Soler, the Spanish counterpart of Domenico Scarlatti.

Pieter-Jan Belder established himself as one of the foremost, versatile and prolific harpsichordists of The Netherlands.

Antonio Soler was born in 1729, and received his early musical instruction from his father, a military musician in the Spanish Army. At the age of 6 he entered the Abbey of Montserrat and became a choirboy in the famous escolania. He also learned how to master the harpsichord and organ, and met Domenico Scarlatti and the singer Farinelli who were both employed by the Royal Family at the court at El Escorial. Soler taught the sons of Carlos III, and it was for the princes that he composed some of his most dazzling sonatas. Some of these works exceeded the range of many of the instruments in use at the time, and it is worth noting that Soler was in addition to being a composer, an instrument builder of some talent, and the instruments he developed could accommodate the demands his music required.

The sonatas on these CDs show Soler had moved away from the single movement sonatas of Scarlatti, and had adopted (like Haydn and Boccherini at the time) the four-movement form which became the norm for the classical sonata right up to and including the early sonatas of Beethoven. By the time Soler composed these sonatas in the 1760s, the new forte-piano had begun to make serious inroads and displace the harpsichord. This recording uses a forte-piano that enables the Alberti bass to be used to maximum effect - something a harpsichord cannot achieve.