Domenico Scarlatti: Sonatas Vol.3 – Angela Hewitt

Ten years on from her first forays into Scarlatti, Angela Hewitt makes a long-awaited return to the baroque composer’s ‘fertile invention, variegated colours, capricious mood changes, and extraordinary power to touch our sensibilities’ (BBC Music Magazine).

For this new volume of Scarlatti, Hewitt has picked out a further 16 jewels. As Scarlatti scholar Ralph Kirkpatrick puts it: ‘Not one of Scarlatti’s 555 or so keyboard sonatas may be regarded as typical.’ ‘What’s fascinating’, she told International Piano, ‘is that all these guys are writing at the same time, yet so differently: Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Couperin, Rameau.’ Of course, the special attraction of Scarlatti’s music is as she said, largely tied to ‘the Spanish influence, which was very strong. The stomping of the feet, the strumming of the guitar—it’s a whole different footwork!’

With ‘her gifts as a programme builder’ as well as her ‘deep affinity for Scarlatti and exemplary musicianship’ (Gramophone), Hewitt has hand-picked 16 more sonatas. As always, Hewitt offers her own beautifully considered, scholarly booklet notes (additionally in German and French) that emphasise further a lifetime studying and performing these works.