Piano Music - Domenico Scarlatti

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📖 "When we hear Scarlatti's music, we know that we are in the cimate of sunlight and warmth. It is Italy, it is Spain - the spirit of the Latin countries and the god of the Mediterranean; we are in the presence of that deity who has been truly called 'the god who dances'."
Wanda Landowska, in Landowska on Music, (1964)

📖 "Domenico Scarlatti, son of the Alessandro Scarlatti, and scarcely less celebrated, only as clavier-player and clavier-composer. He studied with his father and Gasparini at Rome, first made his name known by some operas written for Rome (the only way in which a composer could make a debut at that time in Italy). He was, at the same time, highly esteemed as harpsichord-player, and when Handel went to Rome in 1709, Scarlatti was put forward by Cardinal Ottoboni as the best rival representative of Italian organ and harpsichord playing. The contest ended most honourably for both; yet in organ-playing the German proved himself superior to the Italian. In 1715 Scarlatti succeeded Baj as maestro at St. Peter's, a proof of the high esteem in which he was held. He remained, however, in that office only until 1719, when he went as Maestro al cembalo to the Italian Opera in London, where his opera Narciso was put upon the stage. In 1721 the King of Portugal attracted him to Lisbon as court cembalist and music master to the princesses; in 1725 he returned to Naples, and when in 1729 the Princess Magdalene Theresia married the heir to the Spanish throne (1746; Ferdinand VI.), Scarlatti followed her to Madrid, where he remained until 1754, in which year he went back again to Naples. According to another version, his death is said to have taken place in Madrid. Abbe Santini had in his possession 349 of Scarlatti's compositions for harpsichord and organ, yet his collection was not complete. C. F. Pohl collected 304 MS. copies (making with Czerny's edition 377, of which 37 are found in Czerny only). Scarlatti himself published: 'Pieces pour le clavecin, composees par Domenico Scarlatti, maitre de clavecin du prince des Asturies' (2 books, containing 32 pieces, and a fugue by Alessandro Scarlatti), and 'Esercizi per gravicembalo di Don Domenico Scarlatti, cavaliere di S. Giacomo e maestro de serenissimi principi e principessa delle Asturie.' Of the numerous modem editions of Scarlatti's compositions for harpsichord may be mentioned: the great collection of Czerny (200 pieces), 60 sonatas published by Breitkopf, 50 Harpsichord Lessons by Pauer (Augener), 12 sonatas and fugues by Kphler, 3 sonatas by Tausig, 18 pieces, grouped in suite form, by Bülow, 18 by Schletterer, 28 by Andrfi of Offenbach, a rich selection (over 100) in Farrenc's 'Trésor des pianistes, and some pieces in both of Pauer's collections, 'Alte Meister' and 'Alte Klaviermusik' also in his 'Old Italian Composers' and 'Merry Musicians' (Augener), and in Peters 'Alte Klaviermusik.' The sonatas of Scarlatti are in one movement, and in the Lied form; the writing is homophonic and full of tasteful ornaments, so that it may be regarded as the point of departure for the modern clavier music of P. E. Bach, Haydn, etc."
Hugo Riemann Dictionary of Music (1896)

Domenico Scarlatti

1685 (Naples) - 1757 (Madrid)
Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer of the Baroque era.

📖 "Show yourself more human than critical, and then your Pleasure will increase."

Quote of Domenico Scarlatti

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Piano Music by Domenico Scarlatti

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