Seixas: Complete Works For Harpsichord, Vol. 1

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Cat No: 8557459

Release Date: 03 January 2006

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 747313245925

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: SEIXAS

Description
Carlos de Seixas (1704-1742)Harpsichord Sonatas, Vol. 1 Born in Coimbra in 1704, Jose Antonio Carlos de Seixas succeededhis father, Francisco Vaz, at the age of fourteen as organist of CoimbraCathedral, moving in 1720 to Lisbon, where, from the age of sixteen, he servedas organist to the Chapel Royal and the Patriarchal Cathedral. His earlyachievement both as a virtuoso keyboard performer and as a composer establishedhim as one of the most important musicians in Portugal, and his eminence wonhim a knighthood from King John V in 1738. Like his contemporary in Portugal, Domenico Scarlatti, he was prolific, not least in the production of keyboardmusic, with some seven hundred pieces to his credit. It has been suggested thatthe devastating earthquake of 1755 in Lisbon, thirteen years after the death ofSeixas, may have led to the destruction of many of his works. Very little ofhis choral music, of which there was presumably some quantity, in view of hisposition, survives, and no autographs of his keyboard sonatas, which arepreserved in copies only. A collection of eighty sonatas was edited by the lateMacario Santiago Kastner, a scholar to whom the study of earlier Portuguesemusic is greatly indebted.Domenico Scarlatti moved to Lisbon as mestre da capela aboutthe year 1723 and remained there until 1729, when he left for Spain, on the marriage of his pupil, the Infanta Maria Barbara, to the heir to the Spanish throne.Seixas was, of course, much younger, and presumed by the Portuguese Infante DonAntonio, younger brother of the King, to need instruction from Scarlatti, somenineteen years the senior of Seixas. It was later reported that Scarlatti hadat once perceived the ability of the younger man, reporting to the Infante thatSeixas was one of the best musicians he had ever heard. Since there has alwaysbeen difficulty in dating the compositions of both Seixas and Scarlatti,questions have arisen as to what influence each may have had on the other. Theycertainly shared in a common keyboard tradition, derived, perhaps, from Italiancomposers, but the matter must remain undetermined. Scarlatti, in a longercareer, developed his chosen genre rather further in his Esercizi, whileSeixas had a relatively short life, dying in Lisbon in 1742 at the age of 38.Their sonatas share similarities of form, texture and keyboard range, characteristicsfound in other keyboard works of the time, and they worked as colleagues until1729.In his introduction to his edition of eighty keyboard sonatasby Seixas Kastner draws attention to the royal and aristocratic favour thatSeixas enjoyed and to his prosperity. Comparing his work with that ofScarlatti, he contrasts the latter's career exclusively at court, composingsonatas for his royal pupil and to entertain a court audience, and that ofSeixas, who was bound to supply keyboard pieces for a more varied client?¿le. Someof the sonatas of Seixas arose from his position as organist and the consequentneed for organ voluntaries and mus
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