Product Description
Scott Ross’s award-winning complete Scarlatti keyboard sonatas, first released on Erato in 1988, stand as a landmark in recording history. This re-release marks 25 years since Ross’s death in June 1989 at age 38.
In the 1980s, Ross became the first musician to record the complete keyboard sonatas–555 in all–of Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757). Born in Pittsburgh, Ross moved with his mother to France in his early teens and attended the conservatories of Nice and Paris. After a 12-year stint as an academic in Quebec, he returned to France permanently in 1985 and made his home there.
To celebrate the 300th anniversary of Scarlatti’s birth in 1985, French radio asked Ross to perform the composer’s complete sonatas, for broadcast in a series of weekly programs. He recorded two sonatas a day over a period of 15 months in 1984/85. Many had never been recorded before, even though a limited selection had been featured in the repertoire of major pianists–including Horowitz, Michelangeli, Gieseking, Haskil and Gilels–for decades. Most of the recordings were made on four different harpsichords (Italian and French), to ensure a variety of timbre at the Paris studios of Radio France.
In 1988 Ross received the Grand Prix du Disque for his complete Scarlatti sonatas from France’s prestigious and authoritative Académie Charles Cros, among many other awards. In 1988 he was named Musical Personality of the Year by the Syndicat des critiques français.
The 34 CD are presented in deluxe packaging, with a 20-page printed booklet; this is complemented by 200 pages of online documentation, including a commentary on each of the sonatas (along with the musical notation of its opening bars).
Review
Ross possesses all the necessary virtuoso flair and stylish sensitivity to bring this exciting music bounding to life –The New York Times
