New Omni Video of Scarlatti Sonatas on Guitar

Ana Maria Iordache playing Domenico Scarlatti’s K. 27 sonata in B minor

This morning the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts released its latest video of a solo guitar performance. The guitarist was Ana Maria Iordache, who was born in Bucharest and has established herself as a leading Romanian classical guitarist. The video consisted of performances of two of the many keyboard sonatas composed by Domenico Scarlatti: K. 198 in E minor followed by K. 27 in B minor.

Like most of Scarlatti’s keyboard works, these were single movement compositions structured in what is known as binary form. This amounts to a sort of “call and response” structure, where both the “call” and the “response” are repeated. For the most part the sonatas are two-voice compositions. However, the reverberations of the guitar strings often facilitate the listener appreciating the implicit chord progressions behind the counterpoint. (Those progressions emerge in the original keyboard versions just as readily.)

In my own feeble efforts at the keyboard, I could deploy the harpsichord “source” on my Yamaha Clavinova. This allowed me to work my way through a collection of the sonatas compiled by Marthe Morhange Motchane under the title The Graded Scarlatti. The journey was an enjoyable one as my fingers gradually accustomed themselves to the diverse fabrics of these relatively brief compositions. In that context I could appreciate Iordache’s clear account of the counterpoint that provided both heart and soul of her two selections.

I definitely would not mind her venturing further into the Scarlatti repertoire.