Colour from keyboards: Hantaï on Scarlatti and others.

[Mandryka]

We may have discussed this before, but I'm still not clear.

Hantai wrote about Scarlatti

Scarlatti est en péril, sous-estimé par mes confrères clavecinistes. Ce sont jusqu'à présent les pianistes qui l'ont servi le mieux, ont su mettre en évidence la structure des sonates. Pourtant, le piano rend peu justice à cette musique qui exploite toutes les possibilités du clavecin. Scarlatti dans ses pages les plus flamboyantes, doit sonner comme du Liszt ou du Scriabine, mais les pianistes ont tendance à en faire des miniatures. Quant aux clavecinistes, leur problème vient de leur culture du détail et du raffinement. Scarlatti n'est pas Bach. Son langage fait de courtes cellules répétitives qui créent et alternent des couleurs et climats très variés ne se rapproche en rien de ce qui était connu à son époque. Pour le comprendre, il faut être attentif à ces particularités structurelles, être coloriste dans l'âme.

Here's my translation

Scarlatti is in danger, underestimated by my harpsichord colleagues. Up to now it's the pianists who have served him the best, they've known how to make the structure of his sonatas clear. And yet, the piano doesn't do justice to this music which exploits all the possibilities of a harpsichord. As far as the harpsichordists are concerned, their problem comes from their culture of detail and refinement. Scarlatti is no Bach. His language, which is made up of small repetitive cells and which make and alternate very varied colours and moods, isn't close to anything else known at the time. To get it, you have to be attentive to these [sic] structural particularities, you have to be a colourist in your soul.

My question is, can you get enough colour from a harpsichord to realise Scarlatti's music according to Hantai's vision? Kirkpatrick suggests that the majority were written for single manual instruments, even though he had  two manual harpsichords at his disposition. I haven't checked more recent scholarship. but if that's right then the question about colour is even more acute.

As far as Hantaï's own performances are concerned, I wonder what people think. Does he successfully realise this vision? My answer would be that you hear it most in the first CD. And maybe the second. But I'm not sure, especially about colour.

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

Mandryka - you forgot to translate a line : "Scarlatti dans ses pages les plus flamboyantes, doit sonner comme du Liszt ou du Scriabine, mais les pianistes ont tendance à en faire des miniatures."  At his most fiery, Scarlatti should sound like Liszt or Scriabin, but pianists tend to make miniatures of his work.   

I find your question fascinating, and I think - though I'm kinda outta my element in this area - I agree with Hantaï, though am wondering if he isn't confounding structural issues with those of coloring. 

(BTW, haven't heard him - I have the Ross Anthologie)

[Florestan]

Mandryka - you forgot to translate a line : "Scarlatti dans ses pages les plus flamboyantes, doit sonner comme du Liszt ou du Scriabine, mais les pianistes ont tendance à en faire des miniatures."  At his most fiery, Scarlatti should sound like Liszt or Scriabin, but pianists tend to make miniatures of his work.   

I noticed the ommission, too. I am not sure I can agree, though. Scarlatti lived in a world whose general philosophy of the art and the aesthetic principles derived thereof were far, far away from those of Liszt, let alone Scriabin. On what grounds does Hantai make this claim, I wonder?

[ZauberdrachenNr.7]

I noticed the ommission, too. I am not sure I can agree, though. Scarlatti lived in a world whose general philosophy of the art and the aesthetic principles derived thereof were far, far away from those of Liszt, let alone Scriabin. On what grounds does Hantai make this claim, I wonder?

On the basis of coloration or expressivity, I believe he would say (if I'm reading this correctly), and generally, I can see his point - I think it's an interesting one and potentially fertile. 

[Mandryka]

The comparison with Liszt seemed quite appropriate to me in fact, just because both Scarlatti and Liszt wrote a lot of music which is stuffed with flashy keyboard effects. And I think that Hantai thinks that DS was writing very harpsichord specific music, to make it work you need the sort of sounds, the sort of wildness, that you can never get on a piano. Liszt of course was writing piano specific music, with its own wild side.

I don't know much about Scriabin to comment on that one.

What seems more interesting to me is the idea that Scarlatti's music doesn't resemble other composers of the time. Alessandro Scarlatti's sonatas are also full of swagger, and then there's people like Ge. Muffat to think about. But what you don't have is the short repeated cells which for Hantaï is essential to DS's art, or the wierd harpsichord sounds that you hear when people like Hantai and Sempe play DS.

I wonder how many of the 555 really are based on short cells.