Composer: Alessandro Scarlatti
Performer: Marcello Di Lisa
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: CPO
Catalogue: 555401-2
Release: 2022
Size: 418 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Toccata No. 2 in A Minor
02. Aria in A minor
Toccata & Gigue in D Major
03. I. Allegro, un poco largo
04. II. Giga. Allegro
Toccata, Fugue & Corrente in F Major
05. I. Allegro
06. II. Fuga. Allegro
07. III. Corrente
Toccata & Gigue in D Minor
08. I. Allegro, Adagio
09. II. Giga. Allegro
10. Adagio in G major
Toccata in A major
11. I. Moderato
12. II. Larghetto
13. III. Alla franse. Allegro
Toccata & Fugue in D Minor
14. I. Allegro
15. II. Fuga. Allegro
Adagio & Gigue in B-Flat Major
16. I. Adagio
17. II. Giga
Toccata & Aria in D Minor
18. I. Presto
19. II. Aria alla francese. Andante
20. Toccata in G minor
21. Allegro in C major
22. Toccata in C minor
Toccata, Gigue & Partita in A Major
23. I. Allegro
24. II. Giga
25. III. Partita alla lombarda
As a specialist in the music of Alessandro Scarlatti (please do take note: Alessandro, not his son Domenico!), Marcello Di Lisa has made many recordings that have been acclaimed internationally. Now he turns to Alessandro’s oeuvre for keyboard instruments, which, in the elder Scarlatti’s case, primarily means toccatas. His works of this genre are distinguished by the demonstration of virtuosity that is brilliantly bizarre and in part unpredictable. One typical stylistic element consists of sixteenth sequences continuing on their course like a perpetuum mobile.
While Di Lisa was planning the present recording, he resolved to present Scarlatti as a great master of counterpoint and thus to pay tribute to an aspect constituting the core of this composer’s personality. At the same time, Di Lisa sought out lesser known, more unusual traits conveying a more comprehensive, more multifaceted, and more versatile picture of Scarlatti – the picture of a man who was not only the sublime guardian of the Neapolitan tradition but also a composer who had a fine feel for melodic charms and took delight in surprising, unconventional innovations. And, what is more, the picture of a musician who made carefully calculated virtuosity his hallmark – or, in other words, knew how to combine imagination and intelligence.