SOR: Guitar Duets, Vol. 1

SOR: Introduction and Variations Opp. 26-28 / Etudes Op. 29

Fernando Sor was not only one of the great guitarists of his era but a major composer for the instrument, described by a contemporary critic as "the Beethoven of the guitar". His desire for the guitar to represent a miniature orchestra in timbre is a distinctive feature of his many compositions. The 24 Progressive Lessons, Op. 31 offer a panoramic lexicon for the student, moving from a simple waltz to perpetual motion, whilst the charming Six Little Pieces, Op. 32 further explore technical efficiency and musical expressiveness.

SOR: 24 Exercises, Op. 35 / Pieces de Societe, Op. 33

Includes work(s) by various composers. Ensemble: Prague Philharmonia. Conductor: Steven Mercurio. Soloist: Ana Maria Martinez.

John Cage s father once advised him: If someone says can t, that shows you what to do. It s a safe bet that the 16 iconoclastic composers on this aptly named Naxos of America compilation would agree wholeheartedly with that defiant sentiment. Sonic rebels one and all, they have consistently challenged accepted notions and standards of composition, performance, and even sound. Some have dedicated themselves to the subversion of existing musical forms; others have rejected those forms outright and created new ones of their own. Their anti-authority stance has been rooted as much in the social as the personal, directed at the dissonant trajectories of the century past as well as present. Faced with the uncertainties and complications of modern life, the onrush (some might say onslaught) of technology, and the growing instability both between and within nations, these artists have chosen to communicate their personal visions in a musical tone and language that is controversial, often confrontational, and always compelling.

SOLER, A.: Sonatas for Harpsichord, Vol. 9

SOLER, A.: Sonatas for Harpsichord, Vol. 6

SOLER, A.: Sonatas for Harpsichord, Vol. 5

}Gramophone (1/97, p. 81) "...[Rowland's] selection here is interestingly varied and includes keyboard exuberances such as hand-crossings (Nos. 16 and 90), joyous leaps (No. 101), and imitations of Spanish folk instruments..."{

SOLER, A.: Sonatas for Harpsichord, Vol. 3

A top-quality conclusion to a series which has given some brilliant and idiosyncratic music.

This disc is announced as the final instalment of Gilbert Rowland’s Naxos cycle of the complete Sonatas for Harpsichord by Padre Antonio Soler. I haven’t heard all of the earlier volumes, so I won’t attempt any kind of comprehensive statement about the project as a whole, but my impression, for what it’s worth, is that the series has got better and better as it has gone on. I agree with Patrick Waller (see his review of Volume 12) that the recorded sound has improved in later volumes; it was rather clattery and echoing on some of the early discs, but there are certainly no problems with the sound on this final volume. My sense is also that Gilbert Rowland has come to sound more and more at home with the music, his playing increasingly relaxed, his phrasing more flexible and his range of tonal colours more various. Whether or not these (remembered) impressions are correct, what I can say with some confidence is that this final disc is full of exciting and exhilarating music, played with considerable panache.

Spanish musical traditions are, of course, a central element in Soler’s harpsichord music; traditional Spanish dance rhythms are very clearly audible in the almost seven minutes of the central allegro (marked ‘assai spiritoso’) of Sonata 66, played here with sympathetic (and technically assured) flair; Spanish idioms are also very much to the fore in the opening Cantabile of Sonata 60. At times (as in Sonata 76) the influence of Domenico Scarlatti, Soler’s erstwhile teacher is evident. But Soler clearly listened rather more widely - at times the music prompts one to think of C.P.E. Bach.

Elsewhere, Soler’s fugues would satisfy all but the most pedantically rigorous of Germanic theorists. The fugal third movement of Sonata 66 is a delight, though some of its modulations might perhaps upset that hypothetical pedantic theorist; surely even he (or she?) would find little to complain about in the ‘intento a 4’ which closes Sonata 68, beautifully worked out and technically very accomplished.

But if Soler could be ‘correct’, he could also be somewhat shocking. The allegro in 6/8 of Sonata 60 is full of unexpected leaps and begins with some unconventional harmonies (“almost Bartókian” says Rowland in his characteristically useful booklet notes) that even now retain some of their power to startle.

Rowland responds to the range of this music and, on this disc at any rate, plays it with real innerness. At times here, as on some of the earlier volumes, I wondered whether one or two of the pieces might not work better still on the organ, but that is a quibble which shouldn’t detract from our gratitude to Rowland and to Naxos for the completion of this substantial project. I believe that the only sonatas by Soler which were ever published during the Eighteenth Century were those which appeared as XXVII Sonatas para clave, published around 1796 by Richard Birchall of London. So there is an aptness in the choice of a British (Rowland was born in Glasgow) harpsichordist as the protagonist for this series. In this final disc he plays a two manual instrument by Andrew Wooderson, made in 2005 and modelled on 1750 instrument from the Goermans workshop in Paris – and with its bright (but not excessively so) sound and clear articulation it enables Rowland to do something like full justice to this engaging music.

-- Glyn Pursglove, MusicWeb International

Includes sonata(s) for keyboard by Antonio Soler. Soloist: Gilbert Rowland.

Nine more sonatas by the astonishingly prolific Soler – who also wrote, whilst carrying out his monastic duties at the Escorial, at least six concertos for two organs, nine masses, sixty psalm settings, thirteen settings of the Magnificat and much, much else. He also found time to write a treatise on harmony (the Llave de la Modulacion), to develop something of a reputation as a mathematician and a theorist of monetary exchange and to achieve some standing as an authority on the design of organs! One is not surprised to learn, from an obituary written by a fellow monk, that Soler normally slept no more than four hours a night.

Given all this, it is not surprising that Soler’s output is a little uneven. I haven’t heard all ten previous volumes of Gilbert Rowland’s Naxos series, but on some of the ones I have heard this was very marked . In volume 11 the general level is pretty high, most of the sonatas, in their different ways, showing Soler at something like his best.

In many of the sonatas – like much in the music of Scarlatti (with whom Soler studied) and Boccherini – one can hear the influence of the syncopated dance rhythms of Spain. This is true, for example, of the second subject in the C major sonata which opens the present programme (and which has no Rubio number, not being included in Father Samuel Rubio’s great edition) and of sonatas 45 and 51. There are places, too, where some of Soler’s melodic materials sound as though they may be derived from Spanish folk music, as in the first two movements of Sonata 65.

Yet, for all his ‘Spanishness’, Soler can sometimes surprise one by writing in idioms which one wouldn’t readily think of as Spanish. So, for example, the Rondo, marked ‘andantino con moto’, which opens the four-movement Sonata 62 sounds more like a piece of Viennese classicism, like Haydn or Mozart, for example, than anything else – if one heard it played on the fortepiano the resemblance would, I suspect, seem even greater. This is really only to say that Soler is a good deal more various than he has sometimes been thought to be, that he is far more than merely an imitator of Scarlatti. His sonatas in several movements – this CD includes no. 65 in three movements, as well as Sonata 62 – attempt things quite different from the work of his early master, for all the many echoes of Scarlatti.

Gilbert Rowlands has a sure-fingered understanding of Soler’s idioms and a clear-sighted sense of the differences between the sonatas (evident in his useful booklet notes as well as in his performances). I enjoy his playing, except perhaps in some of the louder climaxes, though this may be the fault of a not especially attractive sounding instrument – described as a "Concert Flemish harpsichord from the Paris Workshop, prepared and tuned by Andrew Wooderson". But this is a relatively small blemish on a generally interesting and enjoyable recital.

-- Glyn Pursglove, MusicWeb International

SOLER, A.: Sonatas for Harpsichord, Vol. 10