In these short sonatas, we get to know the Domenico Scarlatti who is so incredibly likeable and dear to our hearts. In these miniatures, he breaks definitively with the ambition to emulate his father in composing extremely refined music for a connoisseur audience of the highest nobility and clergy. The world of the highly intellectual Roman academies makes room, as it were, for the colourful Spanish street life, without altogether disappearing for that matter. Domenico himself points this out when he writes in the foreword to his Essercizi per gravicembalo (London, 1738) that his sonatas are more evidence of a “shrewd jesting with art” than of “profound scholarship,” but in saying so he did not do justice to his remarkable achievements. In reality, he truly expresses every conceivable human emotion—from the deepest melancholy to the greatest elation—in these pieces, which sound so astonishingly original partly because Scarlatti did not shy away from imitating the “tunes sung by carriers, muleteers, and common people,” as 18th century music connoisseur Charles Burney noted. But flamenco, street fanfares, the old madrigal, the sounds of castanets, bagpipes, mandolins and guitars, and a variety of traditional Portuguese and Spanish dances also make constant appearances in the sonatas. Extraordinarily original, too, is Scarlatti’s harmonic language, which often deviates significantly from the official rules of harmony prevailing in his time and often sounds strikingly dissonant and ‘modern.’ In 1702 Scarlatti left Naples and did not return until the Spanish domination had been superseded by that of the Austrians. In the interval he enjoyed the patronage of Ferdinando de' Medici, for whose private theatre near Florence he composed operas, and of Cardinal Ottoboni, who made him his maestro di cappella, and procured him a similar post at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in 1703.

It was also around this same time that Handel met Georg Phillip Telemann. Telemann was four years older than Handel, was studying law, and was Johann Kuhnau’s assisting cantor. Some forty years later, Telemann recalled in an autobiography that Kuhnau’s writing served as a model for him in counterpoint and fugue, but that in both devising musical movements and analyzing them, he and Handel were constantly engrossed, often visiting one another in addition to writing letters.During this time, Zachow began allowing Handel to take over some of his duties in the church and he performed on the organ regularly. Handle began composing for both voice and instruments around the age of nine. After that, he composed at least one service each week successfully for three years. Many believe that it only took Handle three to four years to surpass Zachow in terms of talent and ability. Nonetheless, Handel grew bored, needing something more challenging. After much consideration, it was decided that Handel would go to Berlin. The great personality who virtually made Naples the Mecca of musicians was Alessandro Scarlatti. He composed more than 100 operas; the number of his oratorios is approximately 150, while the cantatas (600) and various types of church music, together with his keyboard music, complete a truly impressive oeuvre. This astounding productivity does not mean superficiality or patchwork, for his compositions show a mastery of workmanship and an abundance of original musical ideas. In his dramatic works he professed an unconditional worship of the beauty of melody [and] a complete abandonment to the sensuous charm of the singing voice. Modern Italian opera begins with [Alessandro] Scarlatti. Handel, who met him in 1708, remained a devoted admirer of the Neapolitan master throughout his life, studying and imitating his works with loving care.” Alessandro Scarlatti was born on 2nd May 1660 at Palermo on the island of Sicily. He was the eldest son of Pietro Scarlatti and Eleonora D’Amato.

Handel was expected to retire in 1733 when his contract ended with The Queen’s Theater. In fact, the board of chief investors anticipated Handel’s retirement as well, but he immediately began looking for another theater. In collaboration with John Rich, who was known for his sensational productions, Handel began his third opera company, the Covent Garden Theater. It was under Rich’s suggestion that he composed Terpsicore, as Rich had advised Handel to introduce Marie Salle and her dancing by using his small chorus. Handel’s father passed away in February 1697, not even two weeks before his own birthday when he would turn twelve years old. As it was German custom for family and friends to write funeral odes for such a consequential member of the community such as Georg, Handel absolved his responsibility with a poem, signing his name along with a dedication to the liberal arts, in acquiescence of his father’s inclinations. Georg had seen to it that Handel’s education would be provided for. At the time of his father’s death Handle was studying at either the Latin School or the Lutheran Gymnasium in Halle, but it is not known for certain. Young George Frideric Handel Meanwhile Scarlatti ventured into orchestral writing, expanding the Sinfonia concept with his twelve Sinfonie di concerto grosso. There he was to spend his remaining years, first in Sevilla (Seville), perhaps already listening to Spanish popular music and imitating, as Burney tells us, “the melody of tunes sung by carriers, muleteers, and common people,” and after 1733 in the royal residences of Madrid and at the nearby palaces of La Granja, El Escorial, and Aranjuez. Many links with the past seem to have been cut, and an emancipation seems to have taken place that permitted the extraordinary stylistic development of the harpsichord sonatas. Scarlatti virtually disappears as a composer of vocal music, and there is no evidence of his participation in the extravagant opera productions directed at court by his friend the castrato singer Farinelli. Finding a record label willing to let me commit a selection of my discoveries to disc was a huge bonus. Thank you, Harmonia Mundi USA. Another big help was the Borletti-Buitoni trust, which supports interesting projects.

Very little is known about his early life, apart from an entry in a church archive in Rome, dated 27th January 1679, that refers to an oratorio being commissioned from “Scarlattino, alias the Sicilian”. Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) was born in Naples, the sixth child of Alessandro Scarlatti. Father Alessandro took over the musical training of his son, and he arranged for his son’s appointment as organist at the viceregal chapel at Naples before the boy had turned 16.