Maria Canals Winner Plays Soler: Volume 11

courtesy of Naxos of America

Readers may recall that, this past March, Naxos resumed its project to record all of the keyboard sonatas of Antonio Soler after a hiatus of almost two years, which was probably due to pandemic conditions. It now appears that Naxos is trying to make up for lost time, because this Friday will see the release of the next volume (the eleventh) in the series. However, if Naxos is getting back on the ball, the same cannot be said for Amazon.com. Once again, those interested in pre-ordering the album will do better to consult the Presto Music Web page, which, as has been the case with previous Naxos releases, is processing pre-orders for both the CD and three formats of digital downloads, all of which include the accompanying booklet. 

Like the preceding tenth volume, this new album consists of three four-movement sonatas, most likely influenced by the First Viennese School. The first sonata on the album completes the Opus 4 set of six sonatas, a grouping that may, itself, have been influenced by First Viennese School composer Joseph Haydn. The remaining two sonatas are the first two from the Opus 8 collection, which departs from the format of Opus 4 by having only three sonatas.

There is probably much that can be said about Soler’s “journey,” which was originally influenced by Domenico Scarlatti, that led him to Haydn as a new influence. Sadly, the booklet notes by Keith Anderson has nothing to say on that matter. Nevertheless, I cannot be overly critical of Anderson, since Frederick Marvin’s contribution to Grove Music Online is also not particularly informative on this matter.

As is the case with all of the albums in this series, the pianist is a winner of the first prize in the Maria Canals International Music Competition of Barcelona. That pianist is the young Latvian Daumants Liepiņš, who won the 65th competition in 2019. He brings a light touch to all three of the sonatas on the album, which may reflect Soler’s shift from some of the more aggressive Hispanic influences to the refinements of Viennese society. Given that Soler composed 120 of these sonatas, those that have been following these Naxos releases since the very first volume are likely to look forward to future releases to see if any further dispositional shifts will arise.