Search - Domenico Scarlatti, Pierre Hantaï :: Scarlatti: 22 Sonates pour clavecin

Buy! Buy! Buy! :)

William H. C. Congdon | 11/23/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is as good recording as any of some famed Scarlatti sonatas. Though piano performance is common, Scarlatti's music deserves to be heard on harpsichord (as on this disc), the original instrument, where the mechanical clunking and general background mayhem adds to the chaotic music. Also, it is slightly easier to play fast on a harpsichord - which comes in handy on a lot of these tracks.Scarlatti's sonatas make for difficult reviewing, since the entire repertoire is good and the performances here are flawless - what to write?"

Excellent, indeed extraordinary

William H. C. Congdon | Santa Fe, NM USA | 06/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have been listening to Scarlatti for fifty years (my roommate in college was one of Ralph Kirkpatrick's students and I was thoroughly indoctrinated). Yet, Monsieur Hantai has opened windows and views for me I didn't know existed. His sense of the music and its ever changing, ever surpirsing shifts of pacing and color is wonderous. I could go on and on.

D.Scarlatti was a very great composer and a profound human being. One simply doesn't know music if one has not wandered eighteenth century Spain with him. Here's your ticket.

A great recording!"