Ilario Gregoletto, Elena Modena
harpsichords

Born in 1685, the same year as Bach and Handel, Domenico Scarlatti spent the majority
of his career in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. Like his father
Alessandro, Domenico wrote in a variety of forms, and chief among his output are the many
sonatas written for keyboard – works that proved influential in the development of the
Classical style.

The compositions detailed in this release are unique in that they are modern arrangements,
based on a series of keyboard sonatas originally written for solo violin (or woodwind) and
continuo. As a result, they differ from Scarlatti’s genuine works for the instrument, which
prefer a single-movement binary structure to the multi-movement form exhibited here – a
form which uses the Sonata da chiesa’s ‘slow–fast–slow–fast’ scheme in all of the pieces
except K89, whose 3-movement layout compares to the early-18th-century violin sonata.

Containing many expressive features such as the chromatic-based four-semiquaver figure
that pervades the opening movement of K81, these delightful works have been skilfully
adapted to suit the compilation’s duo arrangement. They are performed with aplomb by
Gregoletto and Modena – a partnership that has contributed many fine recordings to
Newton Classics’ keyboard library, and whose engaging playing on this release allows
fresh insight into a small but significant area of Italian Baroque music.