Domenico Scarlatti
Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757) was an Italian composer who spent much of his career at the Portuguese and Spanish courts. He is known almost exclusively for his 555 keyboard sonatas.
Chronologically a Baroque figure, he wrote music that already points toward the Classical style. The sonatas are single movements, mostly in binary form, composed for harpsichord or the earliest pianofortes, with a few for organ or small ensembles.
They cover a wide expressive range: serious and light, courtly dances and street songs, with bold discords, remote modulations, and the colours of Spanish life—castanets, drums, and guitar strumming. Only a handful were published in his lifetime, most famously the thirty Essercizi per Gravicembalo of 1738; the rest entered the keyboard repertoire long after his death in Madrid.
Domenico Scarlatti is featured on the following titles
Scarlatti's Steinways at Melbourne
The remarkable output of 555 keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757) remains one of the most original contributions in Western art music. Pianist Ian Holtham selects 23 sonatas, sequenced into four Baroque tonal groupings and recorded on the Conservatorium’s four Steinway Model Ds.
Compositions by Domenico Scarlatti also appear on
The Convict Harpsichordist
John Grant, frustrated in love, shot a London lawyer in the buttock and was sentenced to death at the Old Bailey. Granted a reprieve, he reached Sydney Cove in 1804 with Australia’s first harpsichord. What music did he play? Elizabeth Anderson answers on the instrument he brought.
Yes, It Rings a Bell!
Adrian Tien takes Australia’s National Carillon in Canberra through a wide-ranging programme: Bach and Gershwin, folk airs, carillon originals, and music from some of today’s finest carillon composers.
La Follia
La Follia variations by Corelli, Vitali, Vivaldi and Scarlatti, in vivid performances by German recorder virtuoso Susanne Ehrhardt with Australian harpsichordist and organist Jacqueline Ogeil.
Bizarre or baRock
Elizabeth Anderson explores harpsichord music across four centuries: from Conceição’s raw 17th-century battle piece and traditional Baroque repertoire to jazz, blues, Gershwin and the Beatles with drums and bass. Weird, wild, wacky and wonderful – you’ve never heard the harpsichord like this.
The Virtuoso Harpsichord
Melbourne harpsichordist Jacqueline Ogeil presents the instrument’s virtuosic, dramatic and passionate sides, from Bach and Scarlatti to Handel, Rameau and the premiere of Naji Hakim’s suite Shasta.
With Tenderness, With Fire
Ronald Farren-Price encores his hugely popular Reflections with this solo recital, ranging from the sublime beauty of a Beethoven Adagio to the thundering splendour of Prokofiev’s Toccata.
Reflections
Internationally acclaimed pianist Ronald Farren-Price offers superb performances of some of the greatest music written for the piano, in a wide-ranging recital of favourite short works.
Fandango
Flamboyant Spanish and French Baroque keyboard music from harpsichordist Elizabeth Anderson, joined by Douglas Lawrence on chamber organ for Soler’s two-keyboard concerto and Couperin’s musettes.
Jinker Ride
A recital collection celebrating the modern pianoforte, drawing on its full range of colour and touch across repertoire from Scarlatti and Clementi to Liszt, with special place given to Australian works by Dorian Le Gallienne and Raymond Hanson.