Domenico Scarlatti: Complete Keyboard Works - Scott Ross [Repost]

In 1985, to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the birth of Scarlatti, French radio broadcast a weekly series of Scarlatti Sonatas played by harpsichordist Scott Ross. By the end of the series Ross had recorded, for the first time, the entire set of the 555 Scarlatti's sonatas. A monumental undertaking, Ross recorded 2 sonatas a day over 15 months, and the result was 34 compact discs packed with these miniature masterpieces, many of which had never been recorded before.

Scott Ross was American-born but lived most of his life in France and Canada. He was already well known for his complete recordings of Rameau's Pièces de Clavecin, and Pièces de Clavecin of Couperin.

But by far his most ambitious project was his recording of all 555 Scarlatti Sonatas, received to much acclaim. He died in 1989 from AIDS, and this set serves as his greatest legacy. Scott Ross elevated the Sonatas from mere musical exercises to one of the great body of works for the keyboard.

Within these 555 Sonatas lies an almost limitless variety of rhythmic and thematic variation. Pick any single Sonata and you are guaranteed of a delight and more than likely a surprise or two as well. Surprises in the form of unusual key shifts, keyboard virtuosity or unexpected dissonances.

The fact they they all follow the baroque binary form (A-B-A) makes their variety even more striking. Dancelike and cheerful, or contemplative and moody, each of Scarlatti's Sonatas is individual and as a body of work, they are deceptively profound.

Domenico Scarlatti had an odd life. The favourite son of the respected operatic composer Alessandro Scarlatti, Domenico was groomed to follow in his father's footsteps. His early works, operas and cantatas, are forgetable.

In 1719 he moved to Portugal to teach the Infanta Maria Barbara, later to become Queen of Spain. Here is where his own style of music flourished, away from the shackles of his domineering father. It was for the Queen that he composed his Sonatas, Italian in style, but heavily laced with the Spanish rhythms of his adopted country. He never returned to his homeland Italy.