Who would have thought at the beginning of the great Scarlatti adventure 15 years ago that there would be no CD at the end? The four of us, who sail the two-voiced oceans of the world in the Scarlatti boat, certainly not: Captain Christoph Ullrich at the steering wheel (keyboard), Gerd Finkenstein in the engine room (grand piano), me as radio operator (recording), and Thomas Seedorf (scientific support and texts) in the crow's nest. All old white men with weathered faces. Well, the CD is still alive. But the project needs another two years... We're going to see it through! Who knows, maybe it will be the last serious big complete edition ever produced for this medium? Then, among many other things, it will also be a tribute to the days when you could still hold what you loved in your hands. Our current position: Domenico Scarlatti wrote 555 piano sonatas. This is volume 12 of 17. Volumes 14 and 15 are already available, a total of 12 double and 2 triple CDs so far. Volumes 13 (already recorded, not yet released), 16 (30 sonatas), and 17 (12 sonatas) are still missing. This means that 513 of the 555 sonatas have been recorded and 477 released. There are still 42 left to go to the home port. We are getting closer to our goal! There are so many interesting, admirable, and thought-provoking aspects to this opus! It would fill books. But we'll save that for the end. Turn these 30 new sonatas into an Advent calendar! Or a January calendar. Every day is unique; every day deserves a different sonata by Domenico Scarlatti!

No one redefined the limits of contemporary keyboard writing in the 18th century more radically than Domenico Scarlatti, whose formal innovation, harmonic daring and virtuosic brilliance set him apart from his contemporaries. In this selection of sonatas Martin Cousin presents a multifaceted portrait of Scarlatti's full creative range. Along with scalic runs, extended trills, dramatic dynamics and playful syncopations, we also meet the impish, quasi-improvisational and introspective composer capable of great nobility and lyrical beauty, one who bridged Baroque traditions with the new Classical style.

For many decades, students of Domenico Scarlatti, including me, have been debating about the relationship between most of Scarlatti's Sonatas and Flamenco dance. Silvia Rambaldi and Andreina Di Girolamo deserve our praise for presenting a practical demonstration that moves beyond the boundary of words, uniting dance and harpsichord performance, by means of the collaboration of the dancer Rita Marchesini, who is an expert on both Baroque and Flamenco dance. And since very often within certain Sonatas there is an alternation between the Andalusian style and the Italian one, the dancer, with her performance, demonstrates that it is possible to "play" with both styles appropriately. (Emilia Fadini) This interesting production on the harpsichord sonatas "encrypted" by Domenico Scarlatti is accompanied by a DVD rom containing the video of the sonatas for two harpsichords filmed in the performance "La festa dorata dell'anima", in which Rita Marchesini (historical dance and flamenco) and Alberto Rodriguez (Andalusian guitarist) join the harpsichordists Andreina di Girolamo and Silvia Rambaldi in this "field demonstration" of the influence of Italian and Spanish dance on the works of the great composer. The comments in the interview with the late Emilia Fadini are not to be missed.

Domenico Scarlatti redefined the possibilities of keyboard music, blending the grandeur of the Baroque with the emerging vitality of the Classical era. He found his artistic sanctuary at the royal court of Portugal in the employ of Queen Maria Barbara, a pivotal role that generated a remarkable synthesis of Italian and Spanish musical traditions. The works included in this collection thoroughly explore the capabilities of both instrument and player, with thrilling inventiveness, dazzling virtuosity and beautiful lyricism, which encapsulate Scarlatti's legacy as a trailblazer in this genre.

As all volumes of the complete recording of Domenico Scarlatti's piano sonatas are released on CD, all the booklets also contain texts on the music. Thomas Seedorf has accompanied the series as musicologist from the beginning. In most cases, Christoph Ullrich contributes his own thoughts. Both very different. In each volume, both have a theme that is particularly appropriate to the sonatas collected. In this case, Thomas Seedorf focuses on the music-historical categorisation of Scarlatti, which is particularly interesting in comparison to his two colleagues born in the same year, Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. Christoph Ullrich devotes himself to the 'being a child' of artists in general, that of Domenico Scarlatti in particular and his own. Both texts are very enriching. Not much more needs to be said about the music. Anyone who has listened to one of the 13 volumes already released knows about the delightful standard of Christoph Ullrich's Scarlatti. Enjoy listening!

Domenico Scarlatti, one of the most fascinating composers of the Baroque era, was born in Naples on October 26, 1685 - the same year as J.S. Bach and G.F. Handel. He was the sixth of ten children of the famous opera composer Alessandro Scarlatti. Domenico, who showed exceptional talent at an early age, began his musical journey under the guidance of his father. He became one of the most influential composers and harpsichordists of his time. Canadian-born pianist Christyna Kaczynski-Kozel presents ten of Scarlatti's highly innovative, virtuoso and technically demanding sonatas on this album. Sometimes they are characterized by a lively and upbeat character, sometimes by a melancholy mood, sometimes they are profoundly introverted or they convey a serious lyricism and melody. Many sonatas also contain folkloristic elements such as castanets or drums, guitars and hunting horn scenes. The technical difficulties are considerable: rapid key changes, arpeggios, repeated notes, trills, plus large leaps spanning several octaves and hand-crossing.

Domenico Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas were most probably written for his patron Princess Maria Barbara of Portugal. Her love of music leads us to assume that she was suitably appreciative of these extraordinary gifts from her teacher and friend. The earlier sonatas are rooted in the Italian style, with the Sonata in G major, K.103 notable for it's eyebrow-raising lurches between major and minor tonalities. The influence of Spanish flamenco guitar can be heard in exotic embellishments and spicy harmonies in sonatas such as K.137 and K.303. Scarlatti's astonishing originality can be found throughout this entire collection.

2018 release. For his third Erato album of harpsichord music, Jean Rondeau turns to Domenico Scarlatti and some 20 of the often-dazzling sonatas that the Neapolitan composer wrote during his years at the royal court in Madrid. Imbued with the spirit of the dance, they are works that Rondeau uses "to tell a story for the people who will listen to an album from beginning to end... An artist must consider how he tells his story, how he can stimulate the public's curiosity."

Having dedicated his first two albums for Arcana to Johann Sebastian Bach (Little Books, A480) and Georg Friedrich Handel (Winged Hands, A499), Francesco Corti turns to Domenico Scarlatti, the third great keyboardist of the 1685 generation. For this recording, he selected a group of sonatas copied in the years 1752 and 1753, strictly organised in pairs. Concentrating on works from the same period, it showcases the composer's extraordinary ability to stretch the boundaries of the sonata form and to extensively elaborate his thematic material. Instrumental virtuosity and an experimental approach to the harpsichord sound go hand in hand with an astonishing formal freedom, combined with a playful sense of structure and expectation. Corti has chosen to perform these sonatas on a Humeau harpsichord, a copy of Italian models (courtesy of Bertrand Cuiller), and record them at the Royaumont Abbey.

Accordionist Philippe Thuriot doesn't only play the repertoire that is specifically composed for his instrument. In the past, he has transposed the music of Francois Couperin and Johann Sebastian Bach for his instrument.�Scarlatti's Sonatas are�baroque gems, full of sparkling melodies and Spanish swing. Philippe Thuriot improvises these enchanting sonatas together and breathes new life into them with his accordion.

With his more than sixty prizewinning recordings, Michael Korstick has gained renown as one of Germany’s leading pianists. And now, with his new recording of sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, he again sets accents and interpretive standards. The score texts, especially as far as ornamentation is concerned, often cannot be written out with precision or brought into systematic agreement in parallel passages. Much in these score texts creates the impression of a sketch and practically invites the player to make individual decisions.

An improvisational element is proper to all the pieces; no sonata follows a predictable course apart from the fact that they as a rule consist of two parts, each of which is repeated. There are many characteristics in Scarlatti’s music that immediately catch the ear’s attention: wit, generosity, keen understanding, irony, sensibility, and not least a healthy portion of the self-confidence forming a super-virtuoso’s sine qua non. The combination of the most sophisticated techniques, some of them acrobatic, with extremely catchy thematic material is characteristic of Scarlatti’s sonatas, but what never fails to astonish us is also his capacity for lyrical introspection in its most manifestations, from the greatest sorrow through the profoundest mourning to meditative absorption. Again, other pieces imitate the sounds of instruments so very different as flutes, oboes, trumpets, horns, guitars, mandolins, castanets, and drums.

This recording presents in full the thirty-two sonatas of the Auswahlband IV of the G. Henle Verlag as well as four of Scarlatti’s most beloved sonatas, which have been published separately by the G. Henle Verlag. The selection of pieces for Band IV has at its goal the presentation of what may be described as the essence or “The Best of” Scarlatti’s art of invention.

Three legendary performances from the Stuttgart Ballet in the choreography of John Cranko: Onegin, Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew. Including bonus conversations on each ballet and three documentaries on the Stuttgart Ballet and its outstanding dancers Marcia Haydée and Friedemann Vogel. The 3 documentaries are for the first time available on DVD and Blu-ray! (Unitel)

Vorobjova's very personal "cantabile" collection from the extensive Scarlatti virtuosic harpsichord repertoire.

From the virtuoso Essercizi (K.12 and 15) to the touching cantabile eloquence of the Sonata in G major, K.144, most of the repertoire on this album consists of lesser-known works incorporating elements of dance forms from Spain and Portugal, with the Sonata (Fuga) in D minor heard here in its world premiere recording.

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725) and his son Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) were two formative Italian composers of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Alessandro was one of the main representatives of the Neapolitan school, a great innovator of Baroque music and especially known for his vocal music such as operas, oratorios, cantatas, etc. His son Domenico became famous above all for his numerous compositions for keyboard instruments. But he was also active in the field of vocal composition. On this album, cantatas by both Scarlattis are effectively combined with sonatas by Domenico.

These sonatas are quite rightly among the most original of their genre in the 18th century. Alessandro wrote over 600 cantatas, Domenico over 500 sonatas, both finding artistic fulfilment in the study of a minimally scored genre. In cantata and sonata, they were able to experiment freely and without regard to the pressure of opera productions to succeed. Both limited themselves to the same form (da capo aria and bipartite sonata form), which they reworked again and again with never-ending creativity. Both loved rich harmonies: Alessandro's preference is for enharmonic confusions, Domenico, perhaps influenced by Iberian popular music, has an almost obsessive love of Phrygian cadence and acciacaturas. Both are masters of counterpoint and fugue. Domenico's relatively unknown church compositions in the strict Palestrina style are testimony to this. The numerous "movement errors" in his sonatas are deliberate and skilful steps of a mature master who only follows his ear and taste.

Father and son had differed above all in the choice of affect: It is difficult to find happy and joyful moments in Alessandro's cantatas. The affect most often depicted in his work is unhappy love. With Domenico, on the other hand, there are many exuberant and cheerful sonatas which, despite all the cloudiness, always return to the initial joyful affect. In Alessandro, the minor is predominant; in Domenico, the major and minor are in balance. Alessandro prefers slow to moderate tempi (Lento, Adagio, Andante), Domenico prefers fast tempi (Allegro, Presto, Prestissimo). It is very attractive to be able to experience these two composers and their compositional characteristics together on one recording. The ensemble TENTA LA FUGA (after the eponymous title of an aria by Alessandro Scarlatti) is a trio formation dedicated to vocal baroque music from around 1700. Its members are internationally renowned artists and graduates or teachers of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and the Conservatoire National Supérieur Musique et Danse de Lyon. Their improvisation-based playing is shaped by performance practice research results developed at these institutes.

Sometimes time flies by. For example, when something stimulating happens all the time, as here with the new volume No. 8 of the complete recording of all 555 sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti. And not because of the two organ sonatas, which are actually played here on an organ, nor because of the acoustics at the new recording venue Marienmünster. Once again, Christoph Ullrich is exclusively responsible for these stimuli, and he knows how to shape these gems, which seem to have been written for him, with such never-ending imagination, exuberant ideas, nuances that always seem spontaneous but are nevertheless carefully woven, that two hours go by like two shooting stars.

John Cranko’s The Taming of the Shrew is one of the greatest ballet comedies of the 20th century. Inspired by William Shakespeare’s world-famous play, Cranko brings to vivid life the story of the shrewish Katherina whom no one wants to marry and the dashing and clever Petruchio who makes her his wife and “tames” her. Set to cheerful and boisterous music by Kurt-Heinz Stolze after Domenico Scarlatti, and with colorful costumes and a charming set by Elisabeth Dalton, The Taming of the Shrew evokes the sunlit streets and gardens of Italy. The perfect ballet for the whole family, danced by the Stuttgart Ballet – “this company is world class” (Tanznetz).

The place of Domenico Scarlatti in the history of 18th century music is certainly exceptional. This exquisite and imaginative group of works is included in the fourteenth volume of Scarlatti’s manuscript sonatas preserved in the Marciana Library in Venice. Although known as keyboard sonatas, research reveals that they were very likely to have been conceived for performance on the violin – multi-movement works, often showing the presence of figured bass accompaniment, rapid changes of register and numerous passages better suited to a violin than a keyboard instrument all support the theory. This is flashy and virtuosic writing for violin at its finest.

This is a recording to bring pleasure. Thirteen Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, taken from the same volume of manuscripts of the Queen of Spain, kept in Venice. Some of these sonatas are very famous, some are rarely played, but all are very beautiful: joyful, poetic, almost always sunny, sometimes melancholic. Brussels based French harpsichordist, Frédérick Haas' passion for the harpsichord started in earlychildhood and he began playing at the age of twelve. He studied the harpsichord, organ and musicology at Paris and Amsterdam, and was enriched by regular contact with important original instruments and the workshops of harpsichord builders and restorers, and at master classes. At the age of 26, he recorded his first solo album, dedicated to the harpsichord suites by J.H. Anglebert.

‘An eagle whose wings are grown,’ according to his father Alessandro, the young Scarlatti left his native Naples for Venice, ‘escorted only by his own ability.’ By his early 20s he had already held audiences in thrall with an ability at the harpsichord which was deemed almost supernatural. There is assuredly the most prodigal imagination at work, as well as an extraordinarily sophisticated keyboard technique, in the 555 surviving keyboard sonatas which fuse Italianate cantabile and counterpoint with vivid Hispanic imagery: folksong, castanets, military trumpets and strumming guitars. All these qualities can be enjoyed in Wolfram Schmitt-Leonardy’s selection of 17 sonatas. Several of them are taken from the collection of Kk1-30 (in the catalogue produced by Ralph Kirkpatrick) which comes down to us as the earliest source of the sonatas in print, published shortly before he moved to Lisbon, thence to Madrid and around the royal courts of Spain, in the service of the princess who would become the Queen of Spain. Her patronage afforded Scarlatti the time and resources to evolve a highly personal style, full of eccentricity and flights of fancy. Hardly less than Bach, these sonatas have become for many pianists a proving ground for their own technique and imagination, rewarding an improvisatory response to their flamboyant effects. However, Schmitt-Leonardy also features several of the composer’s most poetic and reflective sonatas such as the ‘Aria’ Kk 29 and the melancholy soliloquy of Kk 208.

At the beginning of 2021, a gap was found in the renovations at the church, where the previous volumes of the complete recording of all 555 of Domenico Scarlatti's piano sonatas, with the exception of number 6, were recorded. The present 7th publication with the sonatas K. 236 to K. 265 was thus surprisingly made in the familiar surroundings again. Is it perhaps the finest set to date? We ask ourselves and you, dear listener. Help us! The pianist Christoph Ullrich is always on the lookout for a lively and unconventional engagement with the audience. This leads to interesting and contrasting solo and chamber music programs, but also to the development of new program forms. The thematically very dense musical-literary programs with the BonaNox ensemble, the music theater-related concepts for children's concerts as part of laterna musica and his concert idea "Alchemy of Sound" stand for this.

‘A strange but wonderful album’: one of the accolades for Andrea Molteni’s debut album on Piano Classics, of the piano works by his countrymen Dallapiccola and Petrassi (PCL10222). For a sequel, he turns to the endlessly inventive store of sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, who drew on his own extraordinary abilities at the keyboard to produce the illusion of written improvisations within a basic two-part form which left routine formulas of keyboard composition farther and farther behind. In a booklet conversation with the pianist and Lisztian Leslie Howard, Molteni explains that he has selected 18 lesser-known sonatas in a sequence which moves through the keys in the manner of The Well-Tempered Clavier, beginning with the A major virtuoso flourishes of K24 and ending with the G minor of K546. Howard praises the clarity and luminosity of Molteni’s touch; the sensitivity of his approach to ornamentation, which carefully emulates the effects and articulation available on a harpsichord as much as possible; strong dynamic contrasts; and the breathing pauses between sections, which allow for a change of registration like a harpsichord stop. Without observing the traditional pairings of Scarlatti’s sonatas, Molteni’s sequence encompasses the violinistic figurations of the early sonatas from the composer’s residence in Rome as well as the fandangos and guitaristic flourishes of his later and much longer stay in Madrid in service to the Princess (then Queen) Maria Magdalena Barbara. Scarlatti himself professed an aim of ‘ingenious jesting with art’ in a preface to one of volume of sonatas, and Molteni proves himself more than equal to the required balance between musical sophistication and virtuoso demands.

In 2020 the Scarlatti boat was sailing the high seas when suddenly it hit the rocks. And so for the 30 sonatas of part 6, the crew fled like rats from a sinking ship onto dry land and into the back of beyond - where it's too boring even for Corona. Between a stack of grand pianos stored vertically, upright pianos, and in unimaginably dry acoustics, Christoff Ullrich, playing Gerd Finkenstein's familiar and beautiful grand piano, shifted time and space into a bygone world. A world that is perhaps not so distant from our own time as we might think. There were serious diseases everywhere then. Just like nowadays, that didn't stop people from caring about equally important things, such as cheering up a melancholy King! Among other things, this is what Scarlatti was employed for. Dear reader! You are the king who, in the face of the world's crises, threatens to sink into depression. Listen to this double album (for the price of one), full of an endless variety of cheerful, but also often of reflective pieces, and allow it to take your mind off things!