Domenico Scarlatti - Sonatas Vol. 1 (Angela Hewitt)

Information

Composer: Domenico Scarlatti

1. Sonata in D minor, Kk 9
2. Sonata in C major, Kk 159
3. Sonata in B minor, Kk 87
4. Sonata in D major, Kk 29
5. Sonata in A major, Kk 113
6. Sonata in D major, Kk 430
7. Sonata in G minor, Kk 8
8. Sonata in G major, Kk 13
9. Sonata in B minor, Kk 27
10. Sonata in D major, Kk 140
11. Sonata in D minor, Kk 141
12. Sonata in F minor, Kk 69
13. Sonata in G major, Kk 427
14. Sonata in A minor, Kk 109
15. Sonata in D major, Kk 96
16. Sonata in E major, Kk 380

Angela Hewitt, piano
Date: 2015
Label: Hyperion
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67613

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

PERFORMANCE: ***** / RECORDING: *****

Not one of Scarlatti’s 550 or so keyboard sonatas may be regarded as typical, remarked the scholar Ralph Kirkpatrick. These richly rewarding pieces –predominantly in single-movement binary form – astonish our ears with their fertile invention, variegated colours, capricious mood changes and so very often their extraordinary power to touch our sensibilities. Angela Hewitt, playing a warm-toned, evenly spoken Fazioli piano, responds intuitively and alluringly to the multi-faceted character of her chosen sonatas. At one moment she is exposing their raw, percussive elements as in the D minor Sonata, K141, where we sense an Iberian influence, or in the spirited G major Sonata, K13 evoking in its hammer strokes the overture to Rameau’s acte de ballet, Pygmalion; at another Hewitt draws us into an altogether more intimate world with tender inflections. Such is the case with the reflective B minor piece, K87, which hauntingly brings to mind Rameau’s Les tendres plaintes, and the meditative F minor Sonata, K69.

Only in the E major Sonata, K380, the best-known piece on the disc, did I feel that Hewitt’s pacing was perhaps a shade too leisurely. Otherwise this excellently recorded disc is outstanding. In her detailed essay Hewitt intimates a wish to issue further volumes. Wonderful news!

-- Nicholas Anderson, BBC Music Magazine

More reviews:
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/scarlatti-piano-sonatas-0
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2016/Feb/Scarlatti_sonatas_CDA67613.htm
http://www.allmusic.com/album/domenico-scarlatti-sonatas-mw0002909307
https://www.amazon.com/Scarlatti-D-Sonatas-Angela-Hewitt/dp/B017MZSJLW

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Domenico Scarlatti (Naples, 26 October 1685 – Madrid, 23 July 1757) was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified primarily as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style and he was one of the few Baroque composers to transition into the classical period. Like his renowned father Alessandro Scarlatti, he composed in a variety of musical forms, operas, cantatas and symphonias. Today he is known mainly for his 555 single movements keyboard sonatas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domenico_Scarlatti

***


Angela Hewitt (born July 26, 1958 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) is a British/Canadian classical pianist. Hewitt has performed around the world in recital and as soloist with orchestra. She is most well known for her Bach interpretations, especially her cycle of Bach recordings covering all the major keyboard works of J.S. Bach. Her discography also includes works by Couperin, Rameau, Messiaen, Chabrier, Ravel, Schumann, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy and Fauré. In recent years, she records using her own piano, a Fazioli F308 grand. Hewitt received Gramophone Artist of the Year award in 2006.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Hewitt
http://www.angelahewitt.com/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!