Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K79 in G major

Armenian pianist Sergei Babayan studied in Moscow with Mikhael Pletnev, before settling in the States in 1989. He was a prizewinner in several important competitions: the Hamamatsu in Japan (where he won first prize), and the Queen Elisabeth and Busoni competitions. He regularly plays with Valery Gergiev, Yuri Temirkanov and Neeme Järvi. A wonderful interpreter of the great Romantics, Rachmaninoff and Liszt, he is equally at home with Bach (a superb Goldberg Variations!) and...Scarlatti, a generous selection of whose sonatas is recorded on this CD, formerly issued on the Pro Piano label: a stunning display of clarity, elegance, virtuosity and heartfelt emotion.

There are a number of sonatas in Scarlatti’s vast output that can be categorised as ‘melo-bass sonata’. The combination in these of a monodic, figured bass and a highly linear upper part has had contemporary scholars look afresh and consider if these works were intended not for solo harpsichord but for a combination of keyboard and a high melodic instrument. These are delightful reconstructions of what ‘might have been’ and present these solo keyboard sonatas in a new light.

It is possible that Scarlatti knew Vivaldi’s concertos for viola d’amore, and some of Vivaldi’s techniques appear to have been appropriated by Scarlatti, and his polyphonic writing makes full use of the instruments resonances. Certainly the writing fits the viola d’amore very well – especially K88.

The son of Alessandro Scarlatti, who created a new school of opera in Naples, Domenico Scarlatti is particularly distinguished for his remarkable keyboard sonatas, of which some 555 are known. This significant addition to early 18th century keyboard repertoire was written for performance on the various keyboard instruments of the Spanish court, where he was employed for many years, and in all their variety have long provided a valuable repertoire for pianists