Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K213 in D minor

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.

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

Following her 2006 debut recording “Sonatas” (60164), rising star of the guitar Magdalena Kaltcheva releases her long-awaited new album, “Elogio de la Guitarra”. The disc features pieces by major Spanish and Italian composers of music for the guitar, including Joaquín Rodrigo, Isaac Albéniz, Mauro Giuliani, and Domenico Scarlatti.

Magdalena Kaltcheva was born in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1987. After early private lessons she became a student at the "Belvedere" School of Music in Weimar. In October 2004 she began her studies with Prof. Jürgen Rost at the Hochschule für Musik "Franz Liszt" in Weimar, and in July 2009 joined the Masters programme at the University of Music in Cologne. Since 2000 she has performed in a series of concerts in Germany and Europe, and has won many first and second prizes at international competitions.

Widely acclaimed for the subtle artistry of his playing, Pablo Garibay has won numerous international competitions including the ‘JoAnn Falletta’ (USA), ‘Julián Arcas’ (Spain), Manuel M. Ponce (Mexico), René Bartoli (France) and Gevelsverg (Germany). Scarlatti’s ‘soul-searching’ Sonata in D minor, K.213 reveals even more of its expressive poignancy when arranged for guitar, and other sublime works in this recital are closely associated with the great Andrés Segovia, who described Tarréga’s Capricho árabe as ‘especially suited to reach the chords of a feminine heart.’