Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K159 in C major 'La caccia'

Emil Gilels played a sonata by Scarlatti at his first public concert in 1929 and included them in his tours to the West in the 1950s. These recordings present a splendid group of the composer’s widely contrasting moods. Gilels was a true virtuoso in the Lisztian tradition, combining musical integrity with rarely equalled technique. The Fantasia was one of the works with which he won the First Soviet All-Union Competition in 1933, while his recordings of the Hungarian Rhapsodies and three works by Chopin are full of character and personality. A recently discovered notebook in which Gilels logged some of his recording sessions has made the dating of these recordings more accurate in this edition.

Ward Marston, audio restoration engineer

Hungarian born Georges Cziffra (1921-1994) was a pianistic phenomenon. After trying to escape Hungary’s Soviet regime, his early years were spent undergoing hard labour which injured his hands.

Following his release from prison in 1953, the Ministry of Culture arranged tours of Switzerland and Czechoslovakia. In 1954, he made his ‘first’ recording in Hungary and in 1955 in Prague, the source of this recital. He won the Liszt Prize in the same year. In 1956 he made a successful bid for freedom, arriving in Vienna, and was signed by EMI in France where his subsequent concerts created a furore.

This recital has never been issued before on CD. It is extremely rare having been remastered from a collector’s LP.

The recital contains miniatures – CPE Bach, Scarlatti and Couperin as well as the Liszt warhorses which Cziffra became famous for. Out of the four Scarlatti Sonatas, Cziffra includes three in F, G and A that are new to his discography.

The recital is totally free from eccentricity and represents the pianist at his best.

The two bonus tracks come from a 1959 recital in Turin which show off his dazzling technique. The Bach arr. Liszt: Fantasy & Fugue has never appeared on CD before.

Scarlatti wrote no less than 555 keyboard sonatas, all of them true gems thanks to their melodic and rhythmic inventiveness. They use many of the harpsichord’s subtleties and appeal to the whole of the agility and imagination of those who endeavour to play it. Racha Arodaky simultaneously displays her great virtuosity, her artful eloquence and her intimate knowledge of baroque music throughout this disc.

IRENE SCHARRER, though perhaps the least remembered of the major Matthay pupils, was the earliest to record, beginning in 1909 at the age of 21.That in itself is a credit to her early fame, which she established through an extrovert, but always musical, virtuosity.

She excelled in such works as the Chopin Etudes, nine of which she recorded, and in other brilliant pieces such as those here by Scarlatti and Liszt, but the poise and refinement of her Chopin nocture or the slow movement of the Mozart sonata reveal another side to her playing that is sadly underrepresented on disc. Her final recording, of the Litolff Scherzo, was also her most famous; in its day it was a best seller and was responsible for putting that work on the musical map. This set reissues for the first time all Scharrer’s electrical recordings and also an example of every work she recorded in the acoustic era (pre 1925) that was not later remade as an electrical recording. For completeness, a discography of all her other acoustic recordings is also included.

This CD gives us a tour of 18th Century Italian harpsichord music, both historically and geographically. It includes works by Durante and Cimarosa, both from Naples, Martini from Bologna and Galuppi from Venice. Roberto Giordano performs throughout the world and a film-portrait of him has been broadcast in many countries including the UK.

Reissue

At first sight, they appear to have nothing in common - but disregarding the stylistic elements and a difference of two centuries, you soon recognize that both Scarlatti and Bartók, are in a sense, musical architects, who as piano virtuosos were equally interested in miniature forms and inspired by folk music.

Inspired by an 18th century performance practice, where two different character pieces were executed opposite each other in pairs in contrast with each other, I experimented in both the concert hall and the recording studio with the series of pieces on this CD. I found out quickly that I heard, experienced and played both Scarlatti and Bartók’s work ‘differently’ when they were executed alternately - as if discovering hidden secrets in familiar works! This realization led to a new and fresh perspective on the style and rubato and reconsideration of rhythmic, melodic and dynamic elements. (Dejan Lazic, liner notes)