Ten Hundred Devils: Keyboard Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti
7/21/2017, 15 Tracks, 1:01:37
Featuring
Katia Braunschweiler
Domenico Scarlatti
Did you know?
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Composer Biography
After serving as director of the Vatican's Cappella Giulia, Domenico Scarlatti emigrated to Portugal at age 32, and later followed his keyboard pupil Maria Barbara, the designated Queen of Spain, to serve exclusively as her private court harpsichordist.
Composition History
Domenico Scarlatti composed nothing but sonatas for the harpsichord and his highly gifted pupil, Maria Barbara, the designated Queen of Spain, after he became her private court harpsichordist.
Compositional Technique
Domenico Scarlatti's sonatas are highly virtuosic, requiring bold leaps, complicated shifts of position, unexpected hand crossing, cascading arpeggios, and thrilling glissandi, all at extreme tempos.
Compositional Technique
Domenico Scarlatti's sonatas, numbering no fewer than 555, were written specifically for the harpsichord and contributed to the fullest expression of the instrument's sonic potential.
Historical Context
Domenico Scarlatti, an Italian composer at the Spanish court, controversially incorporated elements of Iberian folk music, which had origins among the persecuted Andalusian gypsies, into his sonatas.
Composition History
Domenico Scarlatti, son of famous opera composer Alessandro Scarlatti, deliberately sought his own musical path, rejecting popular Italian opera and chamber cantatas.
Composer Biography
Domenico Scarlatti, born in 1685, is considered by some to be on equal footing with other great composers born that year, Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Handel.
