Débora Halász - Carlos Seixas: Harpsichord Sonatas, Vol. 1 (2006) CD-Rip

A student and younger contemporary of Domenico Scarlatti on the Iberian peninsula, Portuguese composer Carlos de Seixas (1704-1742) wrote harpsichord sonatas in much the same vein as his teacher. Since precise dates for the compositions of either composer are hard to come by, it is even possible that the student might have influenced the teacher in some ways. His sonatas here don't harness the differentiation of texture to the new possibilities of harmonic rhythm in quite the precise ways that Scarlatti's do, and the multimovement structure of many of the sonatas makes them a little diffuse as compared with Scarlatti's. But what the listener gets instead is real fire on the harpsichord strings; Seixas must have been a formidable player. Sample the big peroration on a single harmony at the beginning of the Sonata No. 19 in D major (track 3), the sforzando-like banging chords in the first movement of the Sonata No. 34 in E minor (track 8), or the sheer exuberance of the single-movement Sonata No. 44 in F minor for an example of what's in store for the listener here. The Sonata No. 10 in C major contains an unwieldy movement pair: a 13-minute Allegro and a two-minute minuet, but the ways in which Seixas fills up 13 minutes are consistently interesting and never simply episodic. These big, surprising, sometimes abrupt works have found a perfect interpreter in harpsichordist Débora Halász, who despite the Hungarian name is a Brazilian artist mostly known for playing the piano. Hers is definitely a pianist's harpsichord style, but with Seixas that's exactly what's called for. Don't be put off by the ugly logos on the cover (several German broadcasters had their fingers in the pie on this disc), or by the specialist-sounding "eighteenth century Portuguese" banner at the left -- this is an unusually satisfying disc of Baroque keyboard music, packed with real thrills.