Scarlatti - Fernando Valenti

Longo 474 in F Major

Domenico Scarlatti
Sonatas For Harpsichord
Volume 19
Fernando Valenti
Westminster XWN 18705
1958

From the back cover: Fernando Valenti, one of the leading concert artists before the public today is currently engaged in the monumental project of recording for Westminster the complete sonatas for harpsichord by Domenico Scarlatti. He inaugurated his career as a harpsichordist with a tour of South America in 1946, playing for audiences that had never heard this instrument before. He proved such a persuasive interpreter of the great keyboard literature of the 17th and 18th centuries – playing the authentic instruments – that these audiences demanded a repetition of the tour the following year. Though still only in his twenties, Valenti was selected from among all his colleagues to play at the now legendary Bach Festival in Prades, France. Later during the same summer (1950), he played and taught at the Institute of Humanistic Studies in Aspen, Colorado, where his performances were voted the most popular of the entire season. In the spring of 1951 he was appointed to the faculty of the Juilliard School Of Music – the first harpsichord instructor in the history of this institution.

From – High Fidelity Magazine - November, 1958: Another fascinating batch. L. 474, with its innocent beginning, pathetic continuation, and dramatic finish is each half; L. 11, with its highly expressive ornamentation; the seemingly programatic L. 45, with its sharp changes of mood; the festive L. 240; and L. 483, with its easy-going gaiety – these are perhaps the most striking of the group, but each of the others has something of interest. Valenti seems to be getting even better as he goes alone. I have not heard him play more fancifully or with more feeling. – N.B.

Longo 474 in F Major
Longo 328 in F Major
Longo 11 in D Major
Longo 248 in B Flat Major
Longo 312 in G Minor
Longo 45 in A Major
Longo 483 in A Major
Longo 337 in D Major
Longo 319 in B Flat Major
Longo 240 in A Major
Longo 333 in G Major
Longo 340 in G Major