Search - Antonio Soler :: Piano Sonatas 1

Soler's early keyboard sonatas

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 06/30/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Padre Antonio Soler (1729-1783) was a Spanish monk who had studied for five years with the Italian master, Domenico Scarlatti, long a resident in Spain. This CD, marked Volume One, contains the first eight of Soler's 200+ 'sonatas' for harpsichord, here played beautifully on a modern Steinway by Isidro Barrio, himself a Soler scholar. One can hear similarities with Scarlatti's familiar style, but it becomes clear that Soler was not simply aping Scarlatti. For one thing, he was born 44 years after Scarlatti and the high Baroque style was moving on to become simplified into the style galant; Soler's music demonstrates that change. Indeed, in this disc one can hear him moving from a sort of attenuated baroque contrapuntal style into a much simpler style using homophonic textures, Alberti basses and simpler harmonies. His music is generally marked by its playfulness. Even in the minor key sonatas one hears this. And although it is often remarked that Scarlatti's sonatas reflect Spanish influences, this is all the more evident in Soler's melorhythms. There are guitar effects such as rapidly repeated notes and arpeggiated or strummed chords as well as typically Spanish turns of melody. All these sonatas are one-movement works except for No. 8 which contains four movements, a sort of prototype for what we now think of as the sonata form. It even contains a third-movement minuet. Mozart and Haydn aren't that far off at this point. Barrio is, I gather, recording a series of Soler sonatas; I've seen references to four volumes so far. If this style of music is your meat, or if you are interested to hear music influenced by Scarlatti (which was my motivation), this CD may be for you. Scott Morrison"

Barrio's Soler

Peter DeGado | Boston, ma United States | 11/24/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I started as a Scarlatti fan
Then found Barrio by chance doing Soler
my first impression was " sounds like scarlatti played like a Chopin Nocturne".
Now, it's wonderful. It's half way between scarlatti and Chopin.
It took me a long time to realized that harpsicord is too harsh for my ear - piano is better.
Anyone who loves Scarlatti and/or Chopin should try this.
Maybe start with Vol. 3."