Soler, A: Keyboard Sonatas, Vol. 11

Gilbert Rowland

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Cat No: 8557640

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Release Date: 01 January 2006

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313264025

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: SOLER, A

Description
Antonio Soler (1729-1783)Sonatas for Harpsichord, Volume 11Owing mainly to the tireless efforts of the late FatherSamuel Rubio and other editors in making many of hisworks available in print during the past forty years,Antonio Soler is now justly regarded as the mostimportant composer active in Spain during the secondhalf of the eighteenth century. He was born at Olot, in theprovince of Gerona in north-eastern Spain in 1729 andbaptised on 3rd December. At the age of six he enteredthe famous choir school at the Monastery of Montserratwhere he studied organ and composition. Before that heprobably received some tuition from his father, who wasa regimental bandsman. In 1744 he was appointedorganist at the cathedral in Seo de Urgel and was laterordained as subdeacon there.At that time the Bishop of Urgel asked him if heknew of a boy who could play the organ and who wishedto take holy orders at the Escorial. Soler volunteeredhimself, saying that he very much wanted to take thevows and retreat from the world, and so on 25thSeptember 1752 he became a monk and entered thatfamous monastery near Madrid, built by Philip II. Healso became master of the Chapel there, probably in1757 following the death of his predecessor, Gabriel deMoratilla. Soler remained there until his death in 1783.During the years 1752 to 1757 Soler is reputed tohave studied composition with Domenico Scarlatti andmany of Soler's sonatas show his influence to a markeddegree both in form and musical language. Despite hisprobable debt to Scarlatti, however, Soler's ownpersonality is very much in evidence in these works.Many of these sonatas, like Scarlatti's, are singlemovements in binary form, that is, in two sections, eachof which is repeated, although Soler also composed alarge number of multi-movement sonatas. It is quitepossible that he was one of the copyists of some of themanuscript volumes of Scarlatti's sonatas, now housed inVenice and Parma.Fortunately for posterity Soler's wish for a quiet lifedid not work out quite as he intended. Apart from hismonastic duties he was expected to train the choir,provide choral music for services, and provide the Royalfamily with secular and instrumental music during theirfrequent visits to the Escorial. The Spanish courtregularly spent the autumn there. Soler's achievement isalso astonishing when considering that much of his daywould have been taken up with prayer and the routine ofthe community. Periods of illness often prevented himfrom working. We learn from the anonymous obituary ofSoler, written by a fellow monk on the day he died, thathe survived on only four hours' sleep most nights, oftenretiring at midnight or one o'clock in the morning beforerising at four or five o'clock to say Mass. Mention is alsomade of his religious devotion, compassionate nature,scholarly interests and excessive candour. Soler died atthe Escorial on 20th December, 1783, from a graduallyworsening fever which he had caught the previousmonth. Soler's huge output runs
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