Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)

[aukhawk]

... I've been trying with Scarlatti for years and I have a good variety of recordings. I may keep trying. ...

Can I recommend this Youtube video, I suggest you skip the introduction and start at around 2:10, lasting about 8 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K0fxivBhr0
this lady takes you blow-by-blow through K27, which is probably the most-recorded of all the sonatas and certainly my favourite.  Warning: her 'analysis' and interpretation here puts a decidedly romantic spin on the music - but it can take it.   

[milk]

Can I recommend this Youtube video, I suggest you skip the introduction and start at around 2:10, lasting about 8 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K0fxivBhr0
this lady takes you blow-by-blow through K27, which is probably the most-recorded of all the sonatas and certainly my favourite.  Warning: her 'analysis' and interpretation here puts a decidedly romantic spin on the music - but it can take it.   

I'll definitely take a look tomorrow. Thanks! I remember K27 as being a really catchy one. Scarlatti does have some gripping, almost avant guard, pieces.

[aukhawk]

The strange section in K27 where a short riff is repeated 7 times, like a cracked record before someone jogs the needle and the music can move on - is like a pre-echo of Philip Glass.
As can be seen from the video, this repeated riff includes a single crossed-hand note where the left hard reaches across the right, and I have this fantasy vision of old Scarlatti and his young pupil, Princess Maria Barbara, sitting side by side on the fortepiano stool as he teaches her this piece. 
"You take the right hand, your Royal Highness" he says "and I'll take the left".
...
"Oh, excuse me your Highness, for entirely musical reasons I just need to reach across you and ..."
Plink.
"Oh, er, and again your Majesty ..."
Plink.
"Aaaand again Ma'am ..."
Plink.
"One more time my dear ..."
Plink.
...
"Oh Monsieur Domingo, you cannot stop there!"
Plink.
"Again, I command you!"
Plink.
"For entirely musical reasons, Your Highness ..."
Plink.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

The strange section in K27 where a short riff is repeated 7 times, like a cracked record before someone jogs the needle and the music can move on - is like a pre-echo of Philip Glass.
As can be seen from the video, this repeated riff includes a single crossed-hand note where the left hard reaches across the right, and I have this fantasy vision of old Scarlatti and his young pupil, Princess Maria Barbara, sitting side by side on the fortepiano stool as he teaches her this piece. 
"You take the right hand, your Royal Highness" he says "and I'll take the left".
...
"Oh, excuse me your Highness, for entirely musical reasons I just need to reach across you and ..."
Plink.
"Oh, er, and again your Majesty ..."
Plink.
"Aaaand again Ma'am ..."
Plink.
"One more time my dear ..."
Plink.
...
"Oh Monsieur Domingo, you cannot stop there!"
Plink.
"Again, I command you!"
Plink.
"For entirely musical reasons, Your Highness ..."
Plink.

You either know this or are uncannily close to the truth, but Mozart's little ditty-sonatas for four hands were written PRECISELY in such a way so that Mozart could play finger-footsie (for lack of a better term) with the ladies he was teaching.

[Mandryka]

For me the whole point of listening to Scarlatti is that his sonatas are quite different from Bach fugues, Handel suites or the French clavecinists.

Do you reckon this sounds a bit like Scarlatti?

https://youtube.com/v/dcODeWdFVuY

[Jo498]

Certainly more than the Art of Fugue...! Among the more obviously brilliant sections of the Goldberg variations are maybe also some somewhat close to Scarlatti and the D major and (I think) B flat major preludes from WTC II also remind me of Scarlatti to some extent. But overall this does not change the fact that the more lyrical or "gypsy guitar" like Scarlatti sonatas are quite unlike Bach.

[Mandryka]

I think this is worth hearing, for two reasons. First, the selection of sonatas is creative. And second, more importantly, Demidenko's touch combines strength and lightness in a distinctive way.

(NB his second Scarlatti CD. There appears to be another.)

[prémont]

Do you reckon this sounds a bit like Scarlatti?

https://youtube.com/v/dcODeWdFVuY

Many think so, but I find the piece rather German in conception and far more weighty and condensed than anything Scarlatti ever wrote. The similarity to Scarlatti relates to the outer form but not to the content. This is also true of the pieces Jo498 mentions above.

[Mandryka]

Some interesting comments by Thiery Mechler on playing Scarlatti on a totally anachronistic organ

But before going deeper into the clever badinage, it is necessary to go back in time, to the Baroque period. In 1685 precisely, a great year for music, were born three of the most famous Baroque musicians: Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750 ), Georg Friedrich Haendel ( 1685-1759 ), and... Domenico Scar-latti (1685-1747). Three musicians whose music has crossed the ages, to reach us, intact. Three musicians who were initiated into their art in their native lands: Germany for the first two, Italy for the latter. Before taking to the road to live out their métier, Bach spent his life and composed the whole of his work in Ger-many, either roaming the regions or living a sedentary life in Leipzig. As for Haendel, he had chosen to de-velop his art in England, within the entourage of King George I. Finally, Scarlatti settled in Madrid, Spain, in 1729, following his famous student, Princess Maria Magdalena Barbara, who was married to the heir to the kingdom of Spain. After having devoted his time of composition to the opera and vocal works, the son of Alessandro Scarlatti concentrated on the harpsichord, an instrument that Domenico mastered during his studies in his youth in Italy. The story goes that Scarlatti and Haendel were opposed, in a friendly way, in a musical tournament in Rome; Scarlatti won on the harpsichord, Haendel on the organ.

The catalogue of Scarlatti is essentially composed of works for the harpsichord, including 555 sonatas or essercizi, written in only one movement, each in binary form with one or two themes, and each with its own temperament and character. Scarlatti did not really wish to classify them specifically, unlike Bach who would group several pieces under one name. The sonatas by Scarlatti can be distinguished today thanks to the classification carried out by Ralph Kirkpatrick.

In his sonatas, Scarlatti proposes a digest of the science of the counterpoint of the time, while being in-novative with the melody, which he integrates into the rhythm and the harmony, using dissonances, abrupt modulations, rhythmic and melodic contrasts. All of those are concentrated in only one relatively short movement, in a boundless virtuosity, which is not unlike another virtuoso of the keyboard years later, Franz Liszt, whom one will not fail to compare with Scarlatti. Paul Dukas reinforced this comparison, saying that Searlatti's sonatas, even though they test primarily the agility of the fingers, are above all pieces of music, a music which must have seemed to the harpsichordists of the time as rich in effect and as complicated in execution as the Studies of Chopin or Liszt may have appeared to the pianists of the 19th century.

In his unpublished recording, Thierry Mechler selected 14 of the 555 sonatas composed by Domenico Scarlatti, which he interprets on the Callinet organ of Issenheim. He explains to us the reasons of this new choice:

Thierry Mechler, you chose to interpret on the organ a selection of 14 sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti, originally written for the harpsichord. Why this choice?

I always function as I feel it, and I found it very interesting to play these sonatas on the organ rather than the piano or the harpsichord because it enables me to emphasize a side that one discovers more and more on the organ: the articulation and the touch. For about thirty years organists and teachers have been discovering the attraction of articulations other than mere legato play, discoveries that will make it possible to go _further in interpretation, by giving a transparent side, almost in filigree. It also makes it possible to emphasize some effects, a sonorous palette, some phrasing, that only the organ allows.

In this recording, the choices of registration give some sonatas a certain character "a la francaise", others unmistakenly sound like Bach's, others finally sound as light as sonatas by Vivaldi. Is it surprising?

Each of the 555 sonatas is a microcosm per se, a very technical miniature. Each has its rhythm, its phras-ing, its identity: I wanted to give each of them a spirit that defines it, thanks to the colour of the organ. I like colours very much and I do not restrict in my choices. A music which crosses the time and is well composed has three elements: rhythm, harmony, counterpoint. The three of them are present in each sonata, so the interpreter does not have to compensate for the absence of one of the three elements. The instrument is just the medium that makes it possible to relay the emotions of the listener. If that is done with corwiction, the music is respected.

In addition, it is necessary to play according to the instrument that one has. The Callinet organ of Is-senheim is rich in colours and allows to put forward its sonorities "a la francaise", its terrestrial side... It is important to be able to use its possibilities to the maximum! Finally, I think that if Scarlatti had played on the Issenheim organ he would undoubtedly have adapted his playing to the capacities of the instrument.

You propose, in the first and last tracks of your recording, the same sonata in B minor, but in radically different tempi and registrations. Is this a way of showing that the same piece can be read in various man-ners, according to the feeling of the moment?

In fact I had chosen two registrations: the first one ethereal, with nasard and tremblant, to give a celestial contemplative side. The second, with the montre, was more terrestrial. Since I could not make up my mind, I found it interesting to give both versions, at the beginning and in the end of the recording "between heaven and earth", in the fashion of a portico. Besides this gives a unity to the recording, a little like a cycle. I like cycles, I function a lot in cycles, particularly in my recordings.


It seems that Scarlatti seldom gave a name or a specific identity to his sonatas. In your selection appears the sonata in G minor entitled ICatzenfugue, the cat-fugue. That is a funny name for a piece, isn't it?

Katzenfugue derives its name from the fact that Scarlatti's cat might have walked on the keyboard of the harpsichord, playing some notes with its paws. Scarlatti gathered these notes into the theme of his sonata. A rather twisted theme, very chromatic, it once again corroborates the richness of his writing and inspiration. It is characteristic of all his sonatas, very dense and innovative for their time.

Anne Suply / Translation by Alain Collange

[Rinaldo]

The Complete 555 Domenico Scarlatti Harpsichord Sonatas - ALL AT THE SAME TIME:

(play only at your own risk)

https://www.youtube.com/v/wanpSQXU_3Y

The comment section is glorious ("Still better than listening to one on piano"). Also k.104 emerging at the end as the last sonata standing, love it.

[aukhawk]

Thankyou for that.

[amw]

What are people's thoughts (if any) on the Hantaï Scarlatti series on Mirare?

[Mandryka]

What are people's thoughts (if any) on the Hantaï Scarlatti series on Mirare?

The first one has a sort of strange fascination. As does his early recording on Astrée.

I got bored after that.

[Mandryka]

Let me add something.

Here's something he said in an early interview  -- my emphasis

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.

It's that conception of the music's distinctive essential quality as being "made of small repetitive cells which create and alternate varied colours and climates" which makes the first couple of Hantai's recordings stand out. That and a complete refusal to play the music melodically. And a tremendous sense of "letting go", self abandon, almost to the point of madness, especially in the second halfs of the sonatas, where the repetitions can become more frenzied.

There was a lot of discussion about this earlier, maybe on this thread, I remember someone saying (maybe Premont) that he may well have been a "coloriste dans l'âme" in the earlier recordings, but that he lost it rapidly.  I'm just not enough of a lover of the music to be able to form a fair judgement of the later recordings -- I probably haven't given them the attention they deserve.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

What are people's thoughts (if any) on the Hantaï Scarlatti series on Mirare?

LOVE the cacophony!

I rather disagree re: Hantai. I find Hantaï's Scarlatti not ideal, granted, and disappointing given the very high expectations I had of it and still do, whenever a new volume is released. BUT I also still find it the best Scarlatti-on-Harpsichord there is. https://ionarts.blogspot.com/2008/02/some-scarlatti.html

[San Antone]

First and foremost:

Pletnev: http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2005/02/dip-your-ears-no-26.html & http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Mar08/scarlatti_5181862.htm

Agree wholeheartedly.   

Also, his Taneyev chamber CD is very enjoyable.

[amw]

The first one has a sort of strange fascination. As does his early recording on Astrée.

I got bored after that.

I have the Astrée recording and enjoy it on the occasions I listen to it. I'd always had the impression that people did not think as highly of the Mirare issues but perhaps I will just have to listen for myself.

[Mandryka]

He uses a Flemish harpsichord in the later volumes, that may be part of what's going on - the sound is less warm. Dipping into the others you can hear that the basic approach hasn't changed, though I do think it sounds as though it's executed with less freshness and élan, a sense of routine application of a formula has crept in after the first Mirare, not a bad formula, but a formula nevertheless. There seems to be little attempt to give each sonata a distinct character. So basically it is predictable, thrilling sometimes, but predictable. This could be just me, blasé and not a great fan of the composer.

It's like watching a dog walk on its hind legs. Amazing at first, but after a short while you've had enough.

[aukhawk]

I agree the first two Mirare volumes have some quite startling (percussive, discordant) moments, worth having at least one of these in a Scarlatti collection for 'something different' I think.  The other volumes are 'more of the same' though as suggested above, reined-in a little - it really depends if the particular selection of sonatas on any one volume is a fit for your collection.



I'm not a harpsichord aficionado and don't really appreciate the differences in the various styles of instrument, but Hantai has a tone (in the more delicate passages) that is unusually silvery and chime-like.  I enjoy it but I can well imagine that more hard-core harpsichord purists might dislike it.

[amw]

I did some repertoire inventory—I have at least one recording of every sonata with a K number because I have the Belder integral (and enjoy it a good deal). But there are some sonatas that I have too many of and am not really looking for new recordings of, simply because they get recorded too often. In my collection those include:

K9 - 13 recordings [no strong favourites]
K27 - 8 recordings [favourite probably Marcelle Meyer]
K29 - 8 recordings [no strong favourites]
K32 - 9 recordings [favourite probably Maria Tipo]
K69 - 9 recordings [no strong favourites]
K87 - 13 recordings [favourite probably Christian Zacharias]
K96 - 8 recordings [favourite probably Andreas Staier]
K113 - 8 recordings [no strong favourites]
K132 - 8 recordings [honestly don't even like the sonata much]
K141 - 15 recordings [favourite probably Hantaï Astrée]
K146 - 9 recordings [no strong favourites]
K159 - 11 recordings [no strong favourites]
K208 - 11 recordings [favourite probably Alexandre Tharaud]
K213 - 10 recordings [favourite probably Aline Zylberajch]
K380 - 13 recordings [favourite probably Yuja Wang]
K427 - 8 recordings [favourite probably Marcelle Meyer]
K430 - 8 recordings [no strong favourites]
K450 - 8 recordings [favourite probably Stephen Marchionda on guitar]
K454 - 8 recordings [no strong favourites]
K466 - 12 recordings [favourite probably Christian Zacharias]
K474 - 9 recordings [favourite probably Christian Zacharias]
K481 - 10 recordings [favourite probably Aline Zylberajch]
K491 - 12 recordings [no strong favourites]
K492 - 11 recordings [no strong favourites]
K513 - 8 recordings [no strong favourites]

Whereas some of my favourite sonatas are less frequently recorded, despite me trying to collect most of the recordings including those sonatas, e.g. K24, K63, K296, K417, K460, K478.... and for others that I quite like the only recording I have is Belder's, e.g. K80, K169, K440 or K511.

Obviously I listen to piano more than harpsichord but still, people really should start looking beyond the ten or twenty "favourite" sonatas at this point....