Scarlatti 141

The slaying of Abel by his brother Cain was one of the favourite subjects of the 18th century Italians, at the time when the oratorio was having a phenomenal success in Rome and Venice. It was most probably in one of the palaces of the “Serenissima”, and not a church, that Scarlatti first performed this astonishing “sacred entertainment”, worthy of a “verismo” opera, in 1707… God and Lucifer confront each other in the very soul of Cain, his brother’s voice is heard from heaven, and the “spatial” treatment of the tonal levels all contribute to the effectiveness of what is almost expressionistic music – there is nothing left out of this incredible Baroque Biblical “thriller”!

The biggest surprise on this wonderfully exuberant and exhilarating disc comes with the very first notes: the piano tone is rich and full, worlds away from the slightly distant, musical-box tone that is often thought appropriate for recordings of Domenico Scarlatti's sonatas on a modern concert grand. But as the soundworld suggests, Tharaud is totally unapologetic about playing these pieces – all originally composed for harpsichord even though the earliest fortepianos were in circulation in Scarlatti's time – on a piano. In the sleevenotes, Tharaud says that of the four baroque keyboard composers that he has recorded so far – Bach, Couperin, Rameau and now Scarlatti – it's the last whose music is most suited to this treatment. His selection of sonatas is chosen for maximum variety, with a group in which the Spanish inflections of flamenco and folk music can be heard, others in which he gets a chance to show some dazzling technique, alongside those in which the playfulness is replaced by profound introspection.

One of the most extraordinary achievements on disc in the last quarter-century…Wherever you dip into them, the sense of stylishness, energy and, especially, Ross's affection for Scarlatti's boundless harmonic and rhythmic imagination is obvious. It's a constant, almost inexhaustible joy.

The son of Alessandro Scarlatti, who created a new school of opera in Naples, Domenico Scarlatti is particularly renowned for his remarkable keyboard sonatas, of which some 555 survive. Written for performance on the various keyboard instruments of the Spanish court, where Scarlatti was employed for many years, these astonishingly inventive and absorbing sonatas alternate between quick-witted virtuoso effects and deeply expressive lyricism.

Alessandro Scarlatti is generally considered one of the most important Italian composers of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. But his music, although it has received more attention in recent years, is still largely unknown. This is partly due to the large quantity of his output: in the genre of the chamber cantata alone at least six hundred compositions are with certainty attributable to him.

This anthology of devotional music from 18th-century Venice and Naples offers an interesting and varied programme. Best known is Pergolesi’s Stabat mater, but the settings by Domenico Scarlatti and Bononcini stand well in comparison. The motets by Lotti, Caldara and Alessandro Scarlatti are real discoveries; Norrington’s performances of the latter are particularly fine. Guest’s Pergolesi suffers from a focus of sound which makes the interpretation seem somewhat generalised. However, all these performances give pleasure, while the music is melodically fresh and rhythmically vital.

What makes Hantaï so thrilling is his insatiable curiosity for ever newer and bolder effects, a ringmaster's sense for giving an audience more than one show at a time. Topping it all is a bubbling youthful zeal, though zeal doesn't do Hantaï's energy level justice - his variety and his recklessness are amazing, he takes tremendous chances, and hits some unbelieveable speeds. Every possible color of the instrument he uses is toyed with and brought out, sometimes tenderly, but more often with elan, panache, brio, gusto - whatever, Hantaï's loaded with the stuff!

This is the second volume of Music & Arts' complete Scarlatti project performed by Carlo Grante. New Classics [UK] wrote of that release: Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas are single movements, mostly in binary form…. Some of them display harmonic audacity in their use of discords, and also unconventional modulations to remote keys.