Pierre Hantaï – Scarlatti: Sonatas, Vol. 5 (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Pierre Hantaï – Scarlatti: Sonatas, Vol. 5 (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:18:21 minutes | 1,64 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Mirare

Viewed from a distance, the corpus of the ‘555’ keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti seem like a juggernaut as improbable as it is unsettling. Its dimensions impress, its nature intrigues. Virtually all of these sonatas, written throughout the composer’s life, employ the same mould: a single movement in binary form, very occasionally differentiated from its fellows by the name of a dance or an indication of affect, never by a title. There is also the often acrobatic instrumental technique they require, and their style of writing, austere, irregular, noisy and contrasted, which can easily bewilder even the most seasoned interpreters. One understands why the Kirkpatrick catalogue arranges things so as to attain the memorable total of ‘555’: it is necessary, at whatever cost, to humanise this gigantic non-monument.

Like many celebrated musicians, Scarlatti was himself the son of a musician. Having quickly attracted attention for his abilities in composition and at the harpsichord, the ‘eagle’ left Naples to ‘take flight’ in Venice (1705-09), then in Rome. Notable among those he met there were Gasparini, Weiss, Roseingrave, Handel, and certainly also Vivaldi, a close associate of Gasparini in Venice. In 1719, when he was in Rome, he is said to have been invited to London to conduct his opera Narciso; but no document con rms whether the trip actually occurred. In that same year his life took on a decisive turn: he accepted the post of music director of the Patriarchal Basilica in Lisbon. Since the city did not have an opera season, he devoted himself almost exclusively to composing for the keyboard. He then became the teacher of the young Seixas and of the brother and daughter of King João V, Don Antonio and Maria Bárbara de Bragança (then eight years old); the princess quickly became one of the most distinguished exponents of his music. During his early years in Portugal, Scarlatti returned to Italy several times and also made a journey to France (1724-25) which may eventually have led to the publication of his famous Essercizi (c.1737/1738). ….

Tracklist:

1-01. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in B-Flat Major, K. 551 (Allegro) (04:12)
1-02. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in E-Flat Major, K. 474 (Andante e cantabile) (06:56)
1-03. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in E-Flat Major, K. 475 (Allegrissimo) (03:57)
1-04. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in E-Flat Major, K. 252 (Allegro) (04:11)
1-05. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in E-Flat Major, K. 253 (Allegro) (03:05)
1-06. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in G Major, K. 547 (Allegro) (04:31)
1-07. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in B Minor, K. 87 [Andante] (05:34)
1-08. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in E Major, K. 28 (Presto) (04:14)
1-09. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in A Major, K. 211 (Andantino) (07:31)
1-10. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in D Major, K. 401 (Allegro) (03:37)
1-11. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in D Major, K. 388 (Presto) (04:06)
1-12. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in D Major, K. 277 (Cantabile andantino) (04:45)
1-13. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in G Major, K. 124 (Allegro) (05:11)
1-14. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in C Major, K. 157 (Allegro) (03:16)
1-15. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in F Minor, K. 238 (Andante) (04:22)
1-16. Pierre Hantaï – Keyboard Sonata in F Major, K. 205 (Vivo) (08:46)

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