Including this issue,
Glaswegian Gilbert Rowland's projected
complete series of the Catalan monk
Antonio Soler's keyboard sonatas has
covered about 125 out of the total of
150. Thus I would presume that there
are about three more discs to come.
Critical reviews that I have seen on
MusicWeb (see links below) and elsewhere
have been mixed. Most problematically,
the recorded sound has not been to all
tastes but Rowland too has come in for
some criticism (see reviews of volume
6 by Peter Grahame Woolf and volume
10 by Johann van Veen).
I started collecting
this series at Volume 6 and my superficial
impression has been that the sound has
improved as it has gone along. Direct
comparisons of volumes 6 through 12
support that view but the matter is
complicated by changes of instrument.
The venue and recording producer/engineer
(John Taylor) have remained constant.
For volume 6 Rowland played an instrument
made in 1981 by Robert Deegan after
Pascal Taskin. The sound was unappealing
and frankly cloudy. Matters improved
in volume 7 with a switch to a French-style
instrument made by Andrew Wooderson
after Goermans. The tone was brighter
but perspectives still not ideal. By
the time volume 9 was reached, the overall
sound quality was reasonable. For Volumes
10 and 11 a mellower Flemish instrument
was used with pretty good results. In
this volume Andrew Wooderson's instrument
is back and the sound is the best yet
for reasons I can only speculate on.
Perhaps it is slightly more distantly
recorded but, whether or not that is
true, the overall effect seems natural
and much cleaner than for the earlier
issues. No information is given about
pitch but, as one would expect, the
instruments seem to have been tuned
well below modern concert pitch.
With regard to Rowland's playing, I would tend
to align myself more with Michael Cookson, David Billinge, Aline
Nassif and Glyn Pursglove who have found much to enjoy. In many
ways I think we are all saying something similar - Rowland plays
the music rather straight - the difference is in how
we react to that approach. In terms
of technique his playing is consistently
assured and he also contributes valuable
notes in the booklets.
Having spent six months
listening to all of Scarlatti's sonatas
played on the harpsichord by Ross, I
find it hard not to hear his influence
much of the time. Soler's musical language
makes no great advances from Scarlatti
but he did move with the times in terms
of structure by writing some multi-movement
works. On this disc Nos. 63 and 67 have
three movements and No. 79 has two,
all the others are singletons. Rowland
indicates in the booklet that recent
research indicates that some of Soler
sonatas were paired but this seems to
have come too late to be accounted for
in his series, and there are no obvious
pairs here. Soler's works were catalogued
by Rubio in the early twentieth century
but it seems doubtful that the numbers
mean a great deal. I wonder whether
there is scope for someone to reconsider
the situation rather as Kirkpatrick
did for Scarlatti in the 1950s? Although
I find these works consistently attractive,
there seem to be few that have the superstar
quality that imbues some of Scarlatti's
sonatas. Of most interest on this disc
is the sonata No. 63 which begins with
a long-breathed movement marked Cantabile.
The second movement is an Allegro
and the finale marked Intento
is a fugue. This is the first of a set
of six sonatas thought to date from
around 1777.
Given the relative
lack of competition in most of the works
and the bargain price it would be churlish
not to recognise the value of this Naxos
series. It is a pity that the sound
is just being optimised towards the
end but, at least from volume 7 onwards,
sound quality should not be a major
deterrent. Anyone interested in Soler,
or who likes Scarlatti, should certainly
try the series out. This volume has
the best sound so far and would be a
good place to start.
Patrick C Waller
Links to reviews of previous discs in
the series:
Volume 6: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/june00/soler.htm
Volume 8: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/may02/Soler_vol8.htm
Volume 9: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Feb04/Soler9.htm
Volume 9: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Aug03/Soler_Rowland.htm
Volume 10: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Jan04/Soler10.htm
Volume 10: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Nov03/Solerv10.htm
Volume 11: http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Apr06/Soler_8557640.htm
Gilbert Rowland (harpsichord) 
