 Claveciniste et organiste, Maître de chapelle du monastère de l’Escurial, le Padre Antonio Soler n’a pas commis que le fameux Fandango, la scie musicale qui l’a fait découvrir au grand public ! Les sonates constituent l’essentiel de son abondante production pour le clavecin, proches dans l’inspiration comme dans la forme de celles de Domenico Scarlatti. S’il s’agit ici de concertos, il faut entendre par là que deux instruments cheminent de concert, souvent en écho, mais sans accompagnement orchestral. Soler les a composés dans les tons majeurs (à l’exception du deuxième) à l’intention de son élève l’Infant Gabriel, fils du Roi Carlos III. L’Infant s’était fait fabriquer un orgue « double vis-à-vis » et c’est probablement à cette occasion que Soler composa ce recueil, qui porte le titre de « Six concertos pour deux orgues ». La discographie est d’ailleurs plus riche à l’orgue qu’au clavecin, qui amène cependant un autre regard sur ces pièces structurées, tout comme les sonates, en deux mouvements, le premier lent suivi d’un second en forme de variations. Sans remettre en cause la suprématie de la version Pinnock/Gilbert, l’interprétation se pare de belles couleurs sonores. (Yves Kerbiriou) These concertos have appeared on Brilliant Classics before, in their alternative guise as organ concertos (BC93763) , and they were reissued within the invaluable boxset of complete keyboard sonatas on 9CDs (BC95143) which is dominated by the solo harpsichord sonatas in definitive recordings by Pieter - Jan Belder. Although Soler originally wrote them for organ, the galant character of these six duet - concertos, however, may more fully be appreciated on harpsichord, Soler’s own instrument. A refined, delicate and carefree mood may be discerned in both slow and quick movements. So too an unmistakably Spanish flavour, reminiscent of Goya, abounding with subtle changes of colour and unexpected twists of mood and melody, in which popular and courtly characters are masterfully mixed. Indeed the composer probably played these concertos on the harpsichord himself, in company with his pupil and employer, Don Gabriel de Bórbon (a photograph of his palace adorns the back of the booklet) . The concertos are chamber pieces, despite their name, and share the bipartite structure of the harpsichord sonatas, likely influenced by the example of Domenico Scarlatti, and they make great play with the possibilities of echo and elaborate ornamentation. The Spanish harpsichordists Agustín Álvarez (b.1959) and Eusebio Fernández - Villacañas (b.1974) form the harpsichord duet L’entretien des clavécins. For this album they play on two instruments by the Milanese maker Andrea Restelli: a copy of a Pascal Taskin (Edinburgh 1769) , and a copy of Pierre Donzelague (London 1711) . They have presented the programme on this album in the context of a Goya exhibition at the Prado in Madrid, which houses many of the most renowned examples of his art.
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