Scarlatti - 2008/09

He has a French name but feels deeply Neapolitan. Naples, that was Olivier Cavé’s childhood, his mother’s homeland… and much more. He studied with Maria Tipo and Aldo Ciccolini – both Neapolitans themselves! – and he likes to say that he grew up in Switzerland… and matured in Naples. It was thus anything but chance why he chose Scarlatti for his first recording for aeon. “I discovered Scarlatti a little by accident”, he recalled. “I was at Ricordi in Naples when I saw a CD – Maria Tipo plays Scarlatti – and my father explained that she was a great Neapolitan pianist and teacher. Once at home it was love at first sight [hearing!], the CD was spinning… and Maria Tipo was to be my teacher! I was eight years old.” Destiny took care of everything. As well as a little perseverance. Naples would do the rest…

“Domenica Scarlatti is more than just a composer of piano sonatas for me, it’s a great love story that originated in a most natural manner while strolling through the colorful streets filled with the noise, hustle and bustle of life. When I play his music I simply recreate at the piano all the sensations that nourished and still nourish my life. Scarlatti was the first great improviser. He enjoyed translating life at the keyboard with unparalleled passion. With him, point of rule. Moreover, in the preface to his sonatas he requests that we do not take his music too seriously. The whole adventure, the great love story, began on the day when Maria Tipo told me in the form of a Scarlatti lesson that “you are Neapolitan, listen to what is in you… and play!”

Olivier Cavé has studied 60 of the sonatas to date: “the choice of the 17 pieces for the recording was extremely natural”. The recording, on the other hand, made at the Tibor Varga Studio above Sion under the direction of Jean-Claude Gaberel was a veritable trial and tribulation: “You can hear everything in this music, and great perseverance is necessary in order to reach the desired result, above all when you have a precise vision of what you want, as in my case.”

CD aeon AECD 0874 – Release date: December 2008

Olivier Cavé about Scarlatti [pdf]

Introduction to the programme by Dinko Fabris [pdf]

Press kit [pdf]