recensions:

Manfred Karallus at Hessischer Rundfunk, 02th mar 2003
Carsten Dürer in PianoNEWS, issue jan/feb 2003

booklet text:

My recollection: We enter the granite world of the Escorial, which from the outside appears unfriendly and more like a fortress. Inside we find the royal living and bed chambers; a few steps further on, a small chapel. We descend deep down to a stone sarcophagus and turn up again to the light of day. As if freed from a burden, in the glare of the Spanish sun, we reach the small garden of the neighbouring monastery San Lorenzo. Here there is life, breathing peace, a fountain, shadowy green. It was also here that the Infante Don Gabriel and his teacher, Father Antonio Soler, took their daily walks, and it is reported that Don Gabriel played the shawm with such virtuosity that it was as though all the shepherds of Arcadia had gathered.

In the monastery of San Lorenzo, Soler wrote for his highly gifted protege - who could play several instruments - an abundance of sonatas full of grace and light-heartedness. As a six year old, Antonio Soler had been accepted into the famous choir school of the Benedictine Abbey in Montserrat, where he received a comprehensive education. At 16 years of age he took up the position of choirmaster at the cathedral in Lérida, and at 23 he was appointed organist and choirmaster at the Escorial, where he also had the opportunity to receive instruction from the famous Domenico Scarlatti. At the same time he entered the Jeronimite order and became a monk at the monastery San Lorenzo, where he lived for the remainder of his life.

Music at the court enjoyed such a high level of cultivation that one spoke of "melomania". The best instruments of the day were available - among them several pianofortes and a few harpsichords that had an especially large range. Here Soler could experiment and play as his heart desired. In his sonatas, most of them composed for the Infante Don Gabriel, Soler drew on Spain's rich musical heritage. At times we can almost hear the sounds of clapping and castanets, the rattle of a tambourine, the strains of a shawm, or a low organ register. Soler continues in the virtuoso style of the Scarlatti sonatas: we find techniques like crossed hands, jumps over several octaves, fast repetitions, and rushing arpeggio cascades, but also new and unexpected harmonic changes.

In Memorias Sepulcrales, which tells about life in San Lorenzo, one can read that Father Soler was very hard-working and conscientious, both as a monk and as a musician. With his sonatas he had created a music that radiales a great joy of world and life. The respected Soler expert, Santiago Kastner, describes this: "Domenico Scarlatti - 44 years Soler's senior - was much more intimately bound to the Baroque than was Soler. In contrast, Soler's compositions reach into the epoch of the gallant style. Now and then it is as though he is setting the tone for the coming of Mozart. How on earth was he able, from the depths of the granite world of the Escorial, to create music that, lacking all intellectual and spiritual pensiveness, radiates pure joy, and, with a mischievous smile and elegant gestures, pours forth spontaneous frivolity?"
Angelika Nebel
Translation: Richard Jackman

This CD is published by RONERrecords and available in selected stores or directly at Angelika Nebel. Upon request CD´s can be autographed (Price: 17,99 €).