Scarlatti Arrives

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1719, the Papal ambassador in Lisbon noted the arrival of a fellow Italian, composer Domenico Scarlatti. Scarlatti was in his early 30s, and the son of Alessandro Scarlatti, a famous and influential composer of Baroque operas in Naples.

At the time, Scarlatti was nowhere near as famous as his father, and had come to Lisbon to serve as the music teacher for eight-year-old Portuguese princess Maria Magdalena Barbara. This teaching gig turned out to be the most important event in his life — and for two reasons.

First, the little princess was mad about music, and became a talented performer on the harpsichord. Second, in 1733, when the princess was 22, she married into the Spanish royal house, becoming the Queen of Spain. Scarlatti remained in her service for the next 25 years, composing for her amusement over 500 harpsichord sonatas, infused with the rhythms and colors of Spanish and Portuguese folk music and with the plucked sound of the harpsichord often mimicking a Spanish guitar.

Only a small number of Scarlatti’s sonatas were published during his lifetime, but long after his death all surviving manuscripts were tracked down and published.

Music Played in Today's Program

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757): Harpsichord Sonata; Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord; Sony 61820

On This Day

Births

• 1632 - Baptism of Italian-French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully, in Florence, Italy

• 1797 - Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti, in Bergamo

• 1915 - American jazz pianist and composer Billy Strayhorn, in Dayton, Ohio

Deaths

• 1643 - Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi, 76, in Venice

• 1924 - Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, 65, in Brussels, Belgium

• 1957 - Austrian-born composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, 60, in Los Angeles

Premieres

• 1862 - Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 2, at the old Gesellschaft for Musikfreunde Vereinsaal in Vienna, by the Hellmesberger Quartet, with the composer at the piano

• 1879 - Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1, in Vienna

• 1964 - Cowell: 26 Simultaneous Mosaics for 5 players, at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, in Buffalo, N.Y., by an ensemble from the Music Department of the State University of New York, Buffalo, directed by Lukas Foss

• 1983 - Messiaen: opera St. Francis of Assisi, at the Paris Opéra, conducted by Seiji Ozawa

• 1989 - Lukas Foss: American Landscapes, for guitar and orchestra, with guitarist Sharon Isbin and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the composer conducting. On the same program were the premiere performances of John Duffy: Symphony No. 1 (Utah) and Joan Tower: Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 2 (dedicated to Joan Briccetti, general manager of the St. Louis Symphony), with Peter Connelly conducting the Duiffy and Tower pieces.

• 1997 - Anthony Davis: opera Amistad, by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dennis Russell Davies conducting

Others

• 1741 - Handel arrives in Dublin for an extended stay (see Julian date: Nov. 18)

• 1919 - Leo Ornstein performs a recital of his own works in New York City