Nimbus DOMENICO Nimbus 5 CDs SCARLATTI DOMENICO SCARLATTI • THE COMPLETE SONATAS • DOMENICO SCARLATTI VOLUME V THE COMPLETE SONATAS • DOMENICO SCARLATTI Venice XII – XIII (1756-7) (K484 – 543) Continuo Sonatas (K78, K81, K88 – 91) Richard Lester Harpsichord & Fortepiano Academia Musicali NI 1729 NI 1729 DOMENICO SCARLATTI 5 CD set The Complete Sonatas DOMENICO other titles in this series SCARLATTI Volumes I • II • III • IV • VI • VII VOLUME V DOMENICO DOMENICO DOMENICO SCARLATTI SCARLATTI SCARLATTI Venice XII – XIII (1756-7) VOLUME I VOLUME II VOLUME III (K484 – 543) Essercizi per Gravicembalo Venice III – V (1753) Venice VI – VIII (1753-4) (K1-30) (K206 – 295) (K296 – 355, K358 – 387) Venice I & II (1752) (K49, K98, K99, K129, K148-201) Continuo Sonatas RICHARD LESTER RICHARD LESTER Harpsichord RICHARD LESTER Harpsichord & Organ Harpsichord & organ (K78, K81, K88 – 91) Richard Lester DOMENICO DOMENICO DOMENICO SCARLATTI SCARLATTI SCARLATTI Harpsichord & Fortepiano VOLUME IV VOLUME VI VOLUME VII Venice IX – XI (1754-6) Appendices & Diversities Academia Musicali Venice XIV (1742) (K388 – 451, K454 – 483) 57 Sonatas (K3, 10-12, 17, 31, 36-38, 43-77, 79, 80, 82-87, 92, 93) RICHARD LESTER Venice XV (1749) RICHARD LESTER (K96, K98-138) Harpsichord Harpsichord & FORTEPIANO RICHARD LESTER Harpsichord For availability and complete track details please visit www.wyastone.co.uk/nrl/scarlatti.html NI 1729 DOMENICO SCARLATTI Richard Lester Scarlatti’s sonatas. He subsequently recorded an album of Scarlatti sonatas which was hailed by all the The Complete Sonatas Through this single recorded marathon Richard major recording magazines as ‘brilliant’. He has Lester has now established an international reputation written extensively for music magazines and as a virtuoso harpsichordist. His piano teachers have VOLUME V NI 1729 contributed two chapters on Scarlatti to a leading included Bernard Roberts - and on the harpsichord, Hungarian book on early music, Regi Zene. Venice XII – XIII (1756-7) George Malcolm - who sponsored his London debut (K484 – 543) recital. His many solo engagements have included His reputation as an organist is clearly celebrated and broadcasts for BBC radio and television, recitals at the includes numerous recitals at King’s College, Continuo Sonatas Royal Festival Hall Purcell Room, Wigmore Hall, Cambridge, St Paul’s Cathedral, Coventry Cathedral (K78, K81, K88 – 91) Bath International Festival, Bruges Festival, many and many other cathedrals and churches in this concerts abroad - and master classes at Dartington country and abroad. During a busy musical life RICHARD LESTER • Harpsichord & Fortepiano Summer School. Richard Lester has also held positions as Head of music at the Mall school in Twickenham, Oakley Hall Academia Musicali It was at Dartington that he met the great School in Cirencester - and as Master of the Elizabeth Lester, · Nerys Evans, Spanish/American harpsichordist, Fernando Valenti, Choristers at Cirencester Parish church. treble recorder descant and treble recorder who ignited Lester’s enthusiasm and passion for ‘Domenico Scarlatti was without doubt, the most The Court in 1729 moved first to Seville, residing in original keyboard composer of his time’, wrote Ralph the Alcazar, ancient palace of Moorish kings.This area Kirkpatrick, Scarlatti’s biographer.1 of Andalusia in Southern Spain is considered the home He was born in Naples on October 26th 1685, the of Flamenco, and frequent visits by the court to major same year as Bach and Handel. It was not until around towns afforded ample opportunity for a discerning ear, as Burney states to, ‘imitate the tunes sung by 1720 however, that his compositional skills developed 2 fully following an appointment in Portugal as chapel carriers, muleteers and common people’. music master to King João V, - and harpsichord This then, is where Scarlatti first heard the hypnotic teacher to his younger brother Don Antonio - and his sounds of Andalucian gypsy music that were to nine-year-old daughter, Princess Maria Barbara. become an endless source of inspiration for many Following her marriage in 1729 to Fernando, Felipe sonatas, all as far as we know, written for his royal pupil. V’s son (heir to the Spanish throne) Domenico was to This compilation ൿ 2007 Wyastone Estate Limited © 2007 Wyastone Estate Limited remain as her music master for the rest of his life. The court remained in Seville for four years before Issued under license from the copyright owner Privilège Accord moving northward to Madrid. The annual itinerary Cover/inlay photo: © iStockphoto.com/magui80 Design: doubletakedesign.co.uk page 2 Domenico Scarlatti VOLUME V Page 15 respectively fifty-six and fifty-eight keys. The pianos variety. It is not clear, however, if this arrangement is writes Ralph Kirkpatrick, ‘…was then divided Spanish court. Some years after his death in 1782, also had short compasses of fifty-nine, fifty-four and original and on the copy the two pedals operate the between the royal residences. Easter, Buen Retiro they were housed in the Biblioteca Marciana, in fifty-six keys respectively. Many of Scarlatti’s sonatas eight-foots independently. This device allows the near Madrid; Spring and early summer in Aranjuez, Venice. These are now referred to as the Venice demand a full five-octave range which would have performer to make subtle crescendos and the ancient seat of Carlos V and Felipe II in the Tagus manuscripts and constitute the principal source for excluded their performance on many instruments in diminuendos by gradually adding or subtracting a valley between Madrid and Toledo; La Granja, high up these recordings. the collection. It is also interesting that sonatas, register. There is a separate stop for the harp located in the Guadarrama mountains toward Segovia; In addition, a further fifteen duplicate volumes were suggestive of the piano’s expressiveness, actually fall near the jack rail. The length of the instrument (8ft Autumn at the Escorial on a lonely hillside copied out mostly by the same copyist, possibly Padre outside of the instruments’ compass. Of all the 3ins) allows for a rich and resonant bass and the overlooking the great plain toward Madrid, – and Antonio Soler, who studied with Scarlatti. These instruments in Queen Maria Barbara’s collection, the tapering of the soundboard in certain areas produces January to mid-March at the old hunting lodge of the volumes are now housed in the Biblioteca Palatina, in three Spanish harpsichords referred to in her a sonorous treble.The case is of pine with tulipwood Pardo.’ Parma. inventory were probably the most frequently used. veneer, spruce soundboard with walnut bridges and When Felipe died in 1746, Fernando VI and Queen Further sonatas have also been discovered and The Portuguese family of Antunes were prominent the keys, like Queen Maria Barbara’s instruments are Maria Barbara made their state entry into Madrid. It of ebony and mother of pearl. authenticated (included in volume 7 of this series) by harpsichord and piano makers in the 18th century and is thought that between 1738 and 1756, Scarlatti W. Dean Sutcliffe, author of The Keyboard Works of shared a workshop in Lisbon, and it is quite probable I have chosen ten sonatas in this set to be played on the wrote the majority of his keyboard sonatas. Little is Domenico Scarlatti. I am indeed indebted to him for that Scarlatti was familiar with their excellent work. fortepiano, which I have then duplicated on the known of him during his time in Spain, although we furnishing copies of manuscripts, which have enabled Joachim José (1731-1811) was probably the most harpsichord for comparison. Court records suggest a know that he married twice and had nine children. He me to compile what is to date, the only complete notable and at least four instruments exist. It is a fine rapid gain in popularity of piano making in Portugal was knighted in 1738 and remained in loyal service recording of Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas. Sonatas in copy of the 1785 instrument by Michael Cole of and Spain, although many instruments were thought until his death on July 23, 1757. Scarlatti’s hand have completely disappeared and in Cheltenham that we hear on Disc 3 - 6.The original is to have been destroyed in the 1755 earthquake. An Between 1752 and 1757, thirteen volumes containing fact examples of his writing are scarce. housed in the Finchcocks Collection of Musical interesting fortepiano which could well provide a thirty sonatas in each were copied out for the Queen. Instruments in Kent. On the original there are two missing link is housed in the Museo Provincial de Although the Ralph Kirkpatrick numbers are used in Only volume X contains four extra. To this series of this recorded edition the chronology follows Queen eight-foot registers strung in brass with a harp stop on Bellas Artes in Seville. Unsigned and undated, it is volumes, two others were added numbered XIV and each. There are two pedals, one engaging one eight- attributed to Francisco Perez Mirabel of Seville, Maria Barbara’s manuscripts which are now housed in XV and dated 1742 and 1749.These fifteen volumes the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice. foot, the other operating the harp. Generally dating from around 1745. It has a full five-octave were bound in red morocco and engraved in gold on speaking on instruments of this type, one eight foot keyboard compass and would sound similar to the the front, together with the arms of Spain and 1 Domenico Scarlatti by Ralph Kirkpatrick. (Princeton register was fixed, but it is possible