Domenico Scarlatti Sonatas
SKU:
METCD1089
£13.50
£13.50
Unavailable
per item
Carole Cerasi
Domenico Scarlatti - Sonatas
Label: Metronome Recordings Ltd
Catalogue No: METCD 1087
Discs: 1
Domenico Scarlatti - Sonatas
Label: Metronome Recordings Ltd
Catalogue No: METCD 1087
Discs: 1
Get it on iTunes or on Google Play
Of the three great composers who were born in 1685 – Bach, Handel and Scarlatti – it was Scarlatti who took by far the longest to establish his reputation. Scarlatti’s first and only printed collection of keyboard sonatas appeared in 1738; by that time, Bach and Handel could look back on decades of achievement and public recognition. But Scarlatti deserves his late arrival in the pantheon because of the sheer inventiveness, originality, and daring of his keyboard music.
The astonishing character of Scarlatti’s sonatas resides in their virtuoso effects and in their compositional originality and harmonic daring. In performance, virtuosity should not be allowed to overshadow character and originality of expression and here Carole’s choice of instrument is crucial: the more pungent sonatas really come to life on the harpsichord and the Spanish organ; while the more introspective and lyrical examples are well suited to the clavichord or fortepiano.
"Her new disc of 15 sonatas doesn’t just meet and exceed the demands of Scarlatti the keyboard virtuoso, who challenges players to cross hands, negotiate rapid skips and finesse complex and rapidly shifting textural patterns. Cerasi’s recording builds a sense of a deeper Scarlatti, a composer filled with delightful musical quirks and oddities, at turns wheeling, ruminative and bumptious. It is a well-plotted disc, capturing the full range of the composer’s moods, the breadth of his keyboard style, from the flamenco-like snarl of his clotted accompaniment chords to the thinner, more elegant mood pieces that sound almost like François Couperin. The programme begins spare and suggestively, building to a spectacular finale with bravura works at the end [...] In short, Cerasi’s disc is delight and will please longtime Scarlatti collectors as much as it entices newcomers to explore further."
(Philip Kennicott for Gramophone)
"It's a playful performance, as impressive in its moments of introspection as it is in those of extrovert brilliance."
(Anna Picard for The Independant, June 2012)
The astonishing character of Scarlatti’s sonatas resides in their virtuoso effects and in their compositional originality and harmonic daring. In performance, virtuosity should not be allowed to overshadow character and originality of expression and here Carole’s choice of instrument is crucial: the more pungent sonatas really come to life on the harpsichord and the Spanish organ; while the more introspective and lyrical examples are well suited to the clavichord or fortepiano.
"Her new disc of 15 sonatas doesn’t just meet and exceed the demands of Scarlatti the keyboard virtuoso, who challenges players to cross hands, negotiate rapid skips and finesse complex and rapidly shifting textural patterns. Cerasi’s recording builds a sense of a deeper Scarlatti, a composer filled with delightful musical quirks and oddities, at turns wheeling, ruminative and bumptious. It is a well-plotted disc, capturing the full range of the composer’s moods, the breadth of his keyboard style, from the flamenco-like snarl of his clotted accompaniment chords to the thinner, more elegant mood pieces that sound almost like François Couperin. The programme begins spare and suggestively, building to a spectacular finale with bravura works at the end [...] In short, Cerasi’s disc is delight and will please longtime Scarlatti collectors as much as it entices newcomers to explore further."
(Philip Kennicott for Gramophone)
"It's a playful performance, as impressive in its moments of introspection as it is in those of extrovert brilliance."
(Anna Picard for The Independant, June 2012)