Angela Hewitt responds intuitively and alluringly to the multi-faceted character of these sonatas

With so much experience playing music of the Baroque, you'd expect something highly personal from Hewitt. Even in a sonata as well known as the lilting Kk9, we hear it afresh, with no turn of phrase going unconsidered. In the bustling Kk159, replete with horn calls, she reveals as much interest in the inner parts as in the outer ones

[Hewitt's] dancing sense of rhythm and playfulness in the bravura Kk29 in D, or the “As fast as possible” G major, Kk427, is irresistible, as is her cantabile emulation of the greatest 18th-century singers in the aria-like slow sonatas…as in her admired Bach recordings, Hewitt’s crisp articulation conveys an impression of Scarlatti’s original harpsichord

The Canadian is on sparkling form, bringing to Scarlatti the same brilliance of articulation, singing line and wit that she lavishes on Bach.

She’s attentive to the music’s other facets, from the ancient sorrow of K8 and the elegiac grandeur of K308 to the humour implicit in K427’s unexpected fortissimo chords – ‘like somebody jumping out at you from behind a door’

This is a release all Hewitt fans will welcome and is good introduction to those few who have not yet discovered this versatile pianist