"Virginia Black plays with admirable precision and control, and her accounts of the slower sonatas are particularly sensitive....Black gives and intense account of the C minor Sonata, and her reading of the Fandango builds up to an impressive climax". This is an enjoyable disc, giving a taste of 18th century Spanish keyboard writing. "
BBC Music Magazine
World class award winning harpsichordist Virginia Black performs a programme that marks the pinnacle of her career. The masterpieces of Scarlatti represented here are coupled with a selection from the 120 sonatas left by Soler in the form he learnt from Scarlatti.
It was as a musician attached to the Spanish court in Madrid that Scarlatti spent the last 28 years of his life, and he helped musically educate the young Antonio Soler, who had been born in Catalonia a year after Scarlatti had moved to Madrid. Soler was also considered an expert in organ construction as well as a composer, and led his life with no thought for prosperity, dying at El Escorial in 1783.
This release was featured as Gramophone magazine's Editor's Choice in November 1994.