Scarlatti Sonatas K.524 and K.525 - Clive Titmuss, and Susan Adams, 6-course guitar and harpsichord

Описание: Music lovers were largely unaware of Scarlatti’s sonatas for harpsichord until the second part of the 20th C. Through the efforts of just a few people, especially Gilbert Chase (Music in Spain, 1947); Wanda Landowska, who revived the harpsichord before 1950; Ralph Kirkpatrick, American harpsichordist and Scarlatti’s biographer, that his reputation as a genius in the composition of Neapolitan binary sonatas was restored. The pianist Vladimir Horowitz used to open his recitals with Scarlatti’s brilliant works. After that, like the concertos of Vivaldi, the revival in interest in early music duly restored his nearly 550 sonatas to the repertoire of pianists and harpsichordists. In his own time his style was much imitated by his Iberian and Italian contemporaries like Soler, Seixas, Rodriguez, Albeniz, Cimarosa.
He lived most of his working life in Spain, where he was household musician to the Queen. Here was drawn into the public life of the people, and in his works you can hear folkloric elements: village processions on feast days, lively portraits of court life, café music, dramatic weather, little opera scenes, love songs, prancing horses, cannon shots. Chase, Landowska and Kirkpatrick all mention how frequently Scarlatti uses little figures, melodies and chord practices drawn from the music of the quintessentially Spanish guitar in his character pieces. He loved to use chords built in fourths, little ostinato accompaniment figures, and strong dissonances which are a feature native to the music of the guitar in the 18th C.
Originally intended to be played together, both of these sonatas have this guitar-imitative element, making them ideal for duo treatment. K.524 (K is for Kirkpatrick, who assembled a catalogue) is a minuet with the melodies in thirds, like two singers with phrases repeated three times like a pop song. As with many pieces by Scarlatti, it uses most of the range of the keyboard, and this means that the guitar must play right at the top of the fingerboard. K.525 is complementary, a sort of fugal gigue in Italian style, with cannon shots incorporated by both instruments as percussive chords, meant to startle the listener after being lulled by the subtle beauty of the first sonata.
Six-course guitar after instruments of the second half of the 18th Century by Benedid and Pagés by Clive Titmuss 2016. French double-manual harpsichord by Hubbard 1980 after Taskin 1769.
Audio is by Chaianne Ellis at SoulTech Audio, video is by Clive Titmuss and video editing is by Susan Adams. Please leave us a comment because we love to hear from you!
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