Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K84 in C minor

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.

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) wrote 555 sonatas for harpsichord. Following the custom of the period, these sonatas may be played on various keyboard instruments. Scarlatti was not only a virtuoso harpsichordist but also an exceptional organist. Some sonatas, by virtue of their nature or of how they are written, are particularly well suited to the organ. Examples include certain preludes and fugues from Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, which dates from the same period.

Vincent Boucher has chosen 18 sonatas which not only can be played on the organ, but on which he feels the organ sheds "a new and favorable light by virtue of its colorful registrations, the notes held and heard for their full duration, the doubling of low notes by the pedal, etc."

Vincent Boucher played these sonatas on the splendid Italian organ, made by Karl Wilhelm, of the Très-Saint-Rédempteur church in Montreal.