Scarlatti: Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 6

Featuring

Christoph Ullrich
Domenico Scarlatti

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Critical Reception

Christoph Ullrich's Scarlatti recordings have been nominated for the International Classical Music Award multiple times and the German Record Critics' Award.

Compositional Technique

Scarlatti's sonatas often feature rapid repeated notes, for which he sometimes gave the instruction 'Mutandi di detti' (alternate the fingers), creating a keyboard equivalent to vocal vibrato.

Performer Biography

Christoph Ullrich, the pianist on this recording, is recording all 555 of Domenico Scarlatti's surviving harpsichord sonatas on a modern Steinway concert grand.

Composition History

Scarlatti's sonatas, mostly single-movement works, exist only in manuscript copies made by a third party, likely his student Antonio Soler for Queen Maria Bárbara of Spain.

Recording & Production

This recording was made in September 2020 in Eltze, a rural village east of Hannover, during the first Coronavirus lockdown.

Composer Biography

In Spain, Domenico Scarlatti served as 'musico de clavicordio y compositor de S. M.' (Harpsichordist and composer of Her Majesty, Queen María Bárbara), with duties limited to teaching and organizing private concerts.

Historical Context

The two main collections of Scarlatti's sonatas ended up in Venice and Parma via the estate of the famous castrato Farinelli, who was a friend of Scarlatti and worked at the Spanish court.