Soler, Fischer, Rameau and His Numerous Scarlatti Recordings Have Received Considerable Acclaim from the Musical Press
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
570292bk USA 16/5/07 8:03 pm Page 4 Gilbert Rowland Gilbert Rowland was born in Glasgow in 1946. He studied the harpsichord with Millicent Silver at the Royal College of Music and made his début while still a student at Fenton House, following this quickly with recitals at the Wigmore Hall. Further recitals at the Purcell Room, performances at major festivals in Britain and abroad, together with broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and Capital Radio, have helped to establish his reputation as one of Britain’s leading harpischordists. His recordings of works by Soler, Fischer, Rameau and his numerous Scarlatti recordings have received considerable acclaim from the musical press. Padre Antonio The complete Soler Sonatas for Harpsichord performed by Gilbert Rowland are available on the following Naxos discs: SOLER 8.553462 – Volume 1 8.553463 – Volume 2 8.553464 – Volume 3 8.553465 – Volume 4 8.554434 – Volume 5 8.554565 – Volume 6 8.554566 – Volume 7 8.555031 – Volume 8 8.555032 – Volume 9 Sonatas for 8.557137 – Volume 10 8.557640 – Volume 11 8.557937 – Volume 12 Harpsichord 8.570292 – Volume 13 Volume 13 Gilbert Rowland 8.570292 4 570292bk USA 16/5/07 8:03 pm Page 2 Padre Antonio Soler (1729-1783) use of the full five-octave compass and were probably has a ceremonial feel to it, as well as a relentless sense originally played on a 63-key harpsichord with a of forward movement. Chromaticism is prominent, Sonatas for Harpsichord, Vol.13 compass from F to g˝ which Diego Fernández built for there are modulations to distant keys and by way of Owing mainly to the tireless efforts of the late Father provide choral music for services, and provide the the Infante Don Gabriel in 1761. contrast there is a passage in the middle starting in the Samuel Rubio and other editors in making many of his Royal family with secular and instrumental music The splendid two-movement Sonata No. 60 in key of B flat, which is more akin to Spanish folk-song. works available in print during the past forty years, during their frequent visits to the Escorial. The Spanish C minor begins with a lengthy slow movement of which Sonata No. 68 in E major is another three- Antonio Soler is now justly regarded as the most court regularly spent the autumn there. Soler’s this is one of Soler’s most hearfelt and poignant movement work from the same set as No. 66 and is the important composer active in Spain during the second achievement is also astonishing when considering that examples. It shares certain features with Sonata No. 24 final sonata in that collection. The lyrical opening half of the eighteenth century. He was born at Olot, in much of his day would have been taken up with prayer (Vol. 9, Naxos 8.555032), not the least of these being the movement is rich in ideas, light in texture and, like the the province of Gerona in north-eastern Spain in 1729 and the routine of the community. Periods of illness prolific flow of lyrical melodies and the unmistakably first movement of No. 66, profuse in trills and other and baptised on 3rd December. At the age of six he often prevented him from working. We learn from the Spanish idiom of its numerous ideas. This movement is ornaments. There are also some passages involving the entered the famous choir school at the Monastery of anonymous obituary of Soler, written by a fellow monk followed by an impassioned driving Allegro in 6/8 time use of syncopated rhythm. This is followed by a Montserrat where he studied organ and composition. on the day he died, that he survived on only four hours’ with almost Bartókian sounding clashing seconds heard vigorous, high-spirited Allegro with much variety of Before that he probably received some tuition from his sleep most nights, often retiring at midnight or at the beginning which must have come as rather a texture including the use of Alberti basses. The second father, who was a regimental bandsman. In 1744 he was one o’clock in the morning before rising at four or shock to eighteenth-century ears. Virtuoso features subject appears in octaves and there are some striking appointed organist at the cathedral in Seo de Urgel and five o’clock to say Mass. Mention is also made of his include frequent use of repeated notes in the left hand modulations in the broken chordal passage at the start of was later ordained as subdeacon there. religious devotion, compassionate nature, scholarly against wide leaps and hand crossings in the right. the second half. The work concludes with an intense At that time the Bishop of Urgel asked him if he interests and excessive candour. Soler died at the There are also modulations to distant keys such as four-part fugue in 3/8 time with beautifully flowing knew of a boy who could play the organ and who Escorial on 20th December, 1783, from a gradually C sharp minor and E major in the second half. counterpoint. Again there are modulations to distant wished to take holy orders at the Escorial. Soler worsening fever which he had caught the previous The Sonata in G major, without a Rubio number, is keys, syncopated rhythms and masterly use of canonic volunteered himself, saying that he very much wanted month. Soler’s huge output runs to nearly 500 a charming, lyrical work, aptly marked Cantabile and devices towards the end. Curiously there is a sequential to take the vows and retreat from the world, and so on individual works, and of his 150 keyboard sonatas, most somewhat resembling the idiom of J. C. Bach despite passage in the middle which is almost identical to that 25th September 1752 he became a monk and entered were intended for harpsichord. the guitaristic figurations in places, which suggests that contained in the fugue from Sonata No. 65 (Vol. 11, that famous monastery near Madrid, built by Philip II. A large number of Soler’s instrumental works, it is probably a late work. This sonata is the last of a set Naxos 557640). He also became master of the Chapel there, probably in including many of the sonatas, were composed for the of thirty copied out in 1786 and known as the Guinard Sonatas Nos. 75 and No. 76 in F major form a 1757 following the death of his predecessor, Gabriel de Infante Don Gabriel (1752-1788), son of Carlos III, manuscript – a source known to Rubio, so it is contrasted pair, the first of which begins with some Moratilla. Soler remained there until his death in 1783. whom Soler served as music master from the mid-1760s. surprising that it does not feature in his edition. three-part writing rather in the manner of a motet. This During the years 1752 to 1757 Soler is reputed to As with Scarlatti, Spanish folk-song and dance elements The second Sonata in G major, without a Rubio material is then extended in a series of upward and have studied composition with Domenico Scarlatti and feature prominently in his sonatas. Soler was much number, is a cheerful, light-hearted, simply constructed downward moving scales until a more martial sounding many of Soler’s sonatas show his influence to a marked influenced by the changing musical fashions of the Rondo in the style of a country dance. Of its three second subject is reached. In the second half guitar degree both in form and musical language. Despite his second half of the eighteenth century and some of the episodes the second and the third are in the tonic minor. strumming can be heard at the point where Soler finds probable debt to Scarlatti, however, Soler’s own single movement sonatas, as well as the four-movement Sonata No. 66 in C major is the fourth of a himself in the remote key of B minor. The scale-like personality is very much in evidence in these works. works dating from the late 1770s and early 1780s collection of six sonatas dating from 1777 each of idea is resumed at the close of each half where again the Many of these sonatas, like Scarlatti’s, are single approach the Viennese classical school in musical which contains three movements. The work begins with use of glissando technique is called for. Sonata No. 76 movements in binary form, that is, in two sections, each language. There are a large number of slow movements a florid slow movement of Mozartian charm, prolific is a busy-textured virtuoso piece very much in the of which is repeated, although Soler also composed a amongst the single-movement works which contain some ornamentation and calls for use of glissando at one manner of Scarlatti and begins like a two-part invention large number of multi-movement sonatas. It is quite of his most profound and memorable music. point. This is followed by one of Soler’s most exuberant before giving way to a more harmonic passage with possible that he was one of the copyists of some of the Recent research has shown that, as in the case of dance movements in 3/4 time. The melodies are guitar strumming chords in the left hand. The second manuscript volumes of Scarlatti’s sonatas, now housed Scarlatti, many of the single movement sonatas were unmistakably Spanish sounding, there is much dash and subject, involving the use of hand-crossings, is derived in Venice and Parma. intended to be played as pairs, though this is not always brilliance in the keyboard writing, and some dramatic from the opening bars, and the second half passes Fortunately for posterity Soler’s wish for a quiet apparent in Rubio’s edition, except in the case of Rubio moments involving the use of diminished seventh through much the same distant keys as its predecessor.