Holy Cross Celebrates Scarlatti’s Birthday with Free Concert of Sonatas for Baroque Violin and Harpsichord

WORCESTER, Mass. – To mark the 320th birthday of Domenico Scarlatti (Oct. 26, 1685 - July 23, 1757), the music department at the College of the Holy Cross will present a free concert of his sonatas for Baroque violin and harpsichord. The concert, part of the Holy Cross Chamber Series, will be Oct. 27 at 8 p.m. in the Brooks Concert Hall.

Holy Cross professor of music Carol Lieberman and Mark Kroll will perform three sonatas for violin and harpsichord, and Kroll will perform seven harpsichord sonatas.

Professor Lieberman has been one of the leading exponents of Baroque violin performance for the past two decades, and is equally well known for her performances of the literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. She has toured throughout North and South America and Europe, and the scope of her versatility can be seen by her performances of the complete Bach Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord in such cities as Lisbon, Madrid, Rome, Boston and San Francisco, and her many premieres of 20th Century works. She is co-director of the Holy Cross Chamber Players, and violinist of the Early Music Ensemble of Boston and The Lieberman/Kroll Duo.

In addition to his concert performances, Kroll is a noted authority on performance practice and period instruments. He is a proponent of the harpsichord music of the 20th and 21st centuries and has premiered, commissioned and recorded many new works. As a conductor, he has directed both orchestral and vocal ensembles, and served as the Artistic Director of Opera New England. In 1991 he was a visiting lecturer at the University of Padua, Italy and in 1993 he served as Professor at the Conservatory of Music in Würzburg, Germany. He has conducted master classes in the music academies of Warsaw, Krakow and Ljubljana and the Athens Conservatory in Greece. Kroll is Professor Emeritus at Boston University, where for 25 years he was professor and chair of the department of historical performance.

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples on Oct. 26, 1685 - the same year as his most famous contemporary, Johann Sebastian Bach. He traveled with his composer father to Florence in 1702, seeking employment in the service of Prince Ferdinand de Medici. While there they met the renowned keyboard instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori, who was experimenting with the hammer action of his "gravicembalo col pian e forte," ancestor of what was to become the modern piano.

By 1724 he was developing the keyboard style - with extensive use of virtuoso techniques, including crossing the hands, rapid repeated notes and leaps of more than an octave - that rendered him one of the greatest keyboard composers of the Baroque.

Scarlatti spent the last 28 years of his life at the Spanish court, and composed most of the 555 harpsichord sonatas for the princess Maria Barbara.

Although many people are familiar with Scarlatti’s harpsichord sonatas, he is not usually associated with the violin. Scarlatti may not have been widely celebrated beyond the Spanish and Portuguese courts that he served, but his music became famous following his death.

For further information, call the music department events line at 508-793-3528.