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This third recording by Ottavio Dantone continues with the series of sonatas which are most markedly Italian. It was, after all, Italy where Domenico Scarlatti was born and lived until around the age of forty. Scarlatti quite clearly wrote in the Italian manner and made it his own even long years spent in Lisbon and Spain did nothing to change that. Nonetheless, this manner is not simply one style, but rather a variety of procedures, formulae and characteristics within that particular style. This means that the playful rubs shoulders with the dramatically heroic, the severe and rigorous suddenly finds itself in the company of elegant galantérie, a chamber sonata is paired off with a concerto grosso, courtly dance rhythms are mixed in with folk dances, violin-like phrasing alternates with vocal-style tone colours and music-school type exercises are offset against instances of utterly unbridled creative imagination. If the above list appears somewhat overlong, it is because Scarlattis resources were virtually inexhaustible and that in turn is a reflection of just how vital and stimulating Italian music was in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. And the Italian manner gave its blessing to a cornerstone of Domenicos work, i.e. the freedom for a performer to improvise. The Italian term for this was diminuzione while in England it was known as division, which meant that performers could add flourishes and variations to a greater or lesser extent to the score in front of them. That Ottavio Dantone does indeed have invention and virtuosity in abundance and that he can perform eminently in the Italian manner will be readily apparent to anyone listening to the present recording. |
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