Romantic Piano Favourites Vol. 9

The present collection of piano favourites ranges from Scarlatti to Bartók, from the 18th century to the 20th. Domenico Scarlatti was the son of a famous composer and member of a family that had been widely involved in music in southern Italy for some time. Born in 1685, the same year as J.S. Bach and Handel, he embarked on a career as a composer and performer in Naples, but spent the greater part of his life in Portugal and Spain, in the service of the Portuguese princess who became Queen Maria Barbara of Spain. For his royal patron he wrote a very large number of short sonatas or "exercises", some 555 in all, designed for the harpsichord.

By the time of Mozart the piano, or fortepiano, as it was properly known, had developed beyond the stage with which Scarlatti had been familiar in Spain. Mozart himself was a performer, depending in part on his ability as a player during the last ten years of his lif