Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K175 in A minor

The title of this CD refers to the melting pot of lights and colours used by the composers featured here; Scarlatti, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Ravel and Albéniz. Felix Ardanaz’s solo work embraces all styles, although he feels a particular predilection for the Impressionist repertoire, and the works of Albéniz and Chopin.

Domenico Scarlatti was born in 1685, the same year as J S Bach and Handel. Early life was spent in Naples and Rome where his father Alessandro held important posts. From 1719 he resided in Portugal, teaching keyboard to Maria Bárbara, daughter of King John V, whose marriage ten years later initiated a move to the Spanish court where he remained based until his death in 1757.

Few details are known of Scarlatti’s life and a considerable amount of his music has been lost. He nevertheless left 555 single movement sonatas contained in two collections known as the Venice and Parma manuscripts. His brilliance at the keyboard is reflected in these sonatas which require very considerable dexterity.

For this recording Carole Cerasi, whose previous discs for Metronome have attracted important awards and critical acclaim, has chosen fifteen contrasting sonatas which brilliantly illustrate Scarlatti’s staggering virtuosity, unexpected eccentricities and a strong awareness of Iberian influences.

“The descriptions which have come down to us today about Scarlatti the performer are small in number, but revealing. When the Irish musician and composer Thomas Roseingrave was in Venice he was invited to perform in a musical academy. His listeners, having been delighted with one of his improvisations, persuaded a young man attired from head to foot in black to seat himself at the harpsichord. When this enigmatic young man began to play, Roseingrave “thought that ten hundred devils had been at the instrument”. The young man dressed in black was none other than Domenico Scarlatti. The image of the ten hundred Devils might suggest to us something akin to brutality. However, the Devil in music is none other than the one which can overcome inconceivable difficulties with an astonishing elegance. That Scarlatti was so acclaimed in Paris can only confirm for us that he was a delicate and exquisite performer. In endeavouring to keep myself at a distance from any other form of Devil, I have wanted, with this recording, to get close to a Scarlatti who sings, who feels and senses, and who plays, by preparing a little opera whose arias take the names of sonatas. Let us follow then these characters with attention across the differing scenes and the varying situations. Perhaps by this route we can discover that what words cannot say about Domenico Scarlatti.” Diego Ares

Rec.date: 2011

Reissue

The anonymous harpsichord used for these performances was built in Naples, the birthplace of Scarlatti, around 1710, and has been recorded here for the first time. It is the only remaining harpsichord with a gut register, known as “tiorbino”. Mathieu Dupouy studied at the Paris Conservatoire and has devoted himself to the harpsichord, clavichord and piano.

Stephen Marchionda has arranged these sonatas for guitar himself. It is surprising that this has not been done before. Marchionda reveals sides of these sonatas that one would never have been able to tease out of them on the harpsichord.

Approximately 40 years have passed since Ralph Kirkpatrick published his epic study of the life and works of Domenico Scarlatti. This wonderful book, the product of the author's unique combination of artistic and scholarly talents, helped to dispel once and for all the superficial impression of Domenico Scarlatti as a sort of rococo lightweight, a composer of "original and happy freaks" as one of his 18th century contemporaries described him. Today, several decades into our international love affair with 18th century performance practice, Domenico Scarlatti is a towering figure universally accepted as one of the greatest and most original artists of the Baroque.