Olga Pashchenko, Scarlatti in Ligeti

Three centuries separate Domenico Scarlatti and György Ligeti. Yet these composers have more in common than we could ever imagine. Both keyboard virtuosos pushed the boundaries of what is possible on a keyboard instrument. Both radical innovators amazed their audience time and again. And they wrote music with remarkable melodic affinities. In the 1950s, Ligeti was active in communist Hungary. The regime censored his more adventurous work, so Ligeti went underground. Met Musica ricercata for example: eleven pieces that defined his personal style. The first uses only one note, each subsequent one adds one until the chromatic scale is complete. It is a masterclass in what is possible with a minimum of material. Ligeti leaves no trick unused, from ornamentation technique to rhythmic variation to creative pedal use. For a dialogue with Scarlatti's most beautiful sonatas, Olga Pashchenko alternates between harpsichord and piano: three hundred years of genius in one breathtaking flow.