Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), son of composer Alessandro, was a Neapolitan who travelled widely and was best known for his keyboard skills. His time was the later Baroque, when the harpsichord was still dominant and Christofori was just beginning his experiments with a new instrument which involved striking the strings, not plucking them. Through Florence, Rome and then Venice, he transferred to the Iberian Peninsula, holding important positions first in Portugal and then Madrid. Here, in 1733 he was music master to Princess Maria Barbara, who had married into the Spanish royal house.

The Princess soon became Queen of Spain and Scarlatti remained in the country for twenty-five years, under virtual house arrest as a valued employee. In Portugal and Spain he was influenced by guitar and gypsy music, flamenco and fervent Roman Catholicism. He produced 555 keyboard sonatas, mostly for the harpsichord, although a few were for organ. These short binary jewel-like pieces captured the Iberian spirit, and although manuscripts were taken to Italy by one of this friends, they were largely unplayed beyond Spain and Portugal until pianist Carl Czerny published a selection of the sonatas in 1839.

Ralph Kirkpatrick was a biographer and scholarly champion of Scarlatti's music. He re-catalogued the sonatas, realising that they had been intended to be played in pairs, often a major-minor couple. His 1953 Catalogue numbering system, e.g. K.479, has become the accepted system, although to avoid confusion with Köchel's Mozart Catalogue K. designations, Scarlatti sonatas are nowadays often referred to as Kk, e.g. Kk479.

This selection of Scarlatti sonatas is an important record of Kirkpatrick's sterling work on behalf of the composer. It more or less represents an analogue recital from 1970, with the addition of 3 sonatas from 1965. The harpsichord is a modern one, based on old instruments, by Reiner Schütze of Heidleberg. Analogue masters have been digitised to DSD ('Original-Image Bit-Processing') and issued in 2004 by Universal.

Kirkpatrick considered that "Domenico Scarlatti was without doubt the most original keyboard composer of his time", and his affection for the music is evident on this disc. His own technique is impeccable, with fine rhythmic shaping and a wry appreciation for Scarlatti's wit, for example in Kk525 in F, a perky fugal first half where a tune plays catch me if you can, interrupted by peremptory stamps - quite likely representing the royal children playing in the palace. The well-known Kk380 in E begins graciously with its delicate trilling curtseying tune, while its partner Kk381 unleashes a rushing torrent of notes. His playing style is very unfussy, with neat trills and unmannered cadences.

Scholarship on Baroque playing practises has, however, moved on in the intervening years, and nowadays Kirkpatrick's mostly staccato style sounds a little dated compared with more recent sonata series by Skip Sempe and Scott Ross, for example. Kirkpatrick also mostly omits the repeats of each sonata section, unless they are particular favourites of his, e.g. Kk525. Also, he eschews adding ornamentation to the repeats (such as they are), and never varies tonal colour by changing registrations, as most modern players do.

Universal's transfer of the original analogue masters is very successful; there is no noticeable hiss, and a full range of overtones depicts the harpsichord's voice accurately. However, the original recording was close and very dry, with hardly any ambience to speak of. Wisely, no synthesis of surround channels was attempted. Consequently, I found the new recording quite fatiguing, and preferred to dip into the tracks rather than playing the whole disc. The close capture also doesn't allow the lower partials to develop properly, for a harpsichord which was probably quite a sonorous instrument. It is a revelation to turn to a modern recording of a harpsichord in a moderately ambient room, where one can easily appreciate why it was the keyboard instrument of choice for such a long period.

A reliable and valuable disc for hearing Kirkpatrick's view of these works then, but if anything the dryness and lack of instrumental glamour has been made more obvious compared with the original analogue recordings and subsequent CD issues.

Copyright © 2009 John Miller and HRAudio.net

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