Search - Sebastian de Albero, Joao de Sousa Carvalho, Baldassare Galuppi :: Portuguese Fortepiano: 18th Century Iberian Keyboard Music / Parmentier

Wonderful musicianship - and a great treat to hear

Craig Matteson | Ann Arbor, MI | 07/05/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For Mr. Parmentier the music comes first, second, and third. He is all about letting the music reveal its charms and its soul rather than making the performer the point.The interesting thing to me, is that the way Mr. Parmentier makes this happen is rather unique. It isn't just period playing (there are lots of folks who do that). It is all about how he articultes things, the tempi and rubato he uses. And of course the instruments he uses when playing the music.Here we hear a fortepiano from the mid-eighteenth century. Since the piano was really first developed around 1721 this is indeed a wonderful experience. While we of the present day are certainly biased towards our wonderful modern instruments (I know I am), when I hear Mr. Parmentier play this music on this instrument I do hear things in the music that would not be heard if played on a big Steinway or the very brilliant Yamahas. There is a delicacy to the tone and articulation happens because the early pianos were made to sound somewhat like harpsichords and didn't have the power to sustain tones almost indefinately. This requires certain musical choices and the music on this disk seems so perfectly written for this instrument (or one like it).I encourage you to get any recording you can by Mr. Parmentier. He is a wonderful musician with a keen mind and a heart devoted to music."

Next time, stick to Iberia

Eloi | Ely, NV USA | 07/11/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"No fan of the 555 keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti should pass this album up. Admittedly, any restoration of an 18th-century instrument like the 1767 Antunes piano here will depend on inspired guesswork, but the brass stringing and leather-wrapped hammers of this instrument show real attention to historical facts.



There are only two Scarlatti sonatas on the album, but there are sonatas by Scarlatti's contemporary at the Portuguese court,

Carlos Seixas, as well as two younger Spanish composers, Sebastian Albero and Antonio Soler (OK, Soler is Catalan). The notes call both "students" of Scarlatti, and to the degree that

both were probably among the copyists of the two main Scarlatti manuscripts, they were certainly familiar with Scarlatti's works.



This recording is as close as we'll ever get to the actual sounds of Domenico Scarlatti and his brilliant royal patron and student, Maria Barbara. In particular, the surprisingly strong bass of the Antunes instrument shows a different side to the supposedly treble-dominated Scarlatti sonatas. Edward Parmentier varies tempos with an almost 19th-century freedom, but he does keep the weight on the upbeat and play with clear articulation. Bravo!



Now for the down side--the repertory. I can see why Lodovico Giustini might have been included in this recording of what is arguably the best-preserved example of an 18th-century piano because he was the very first composer to call for "piano e forte" in his published music. But TWO sonatas by the decidedly lightweight Italian composer for nearly 26 minutes is hard to justify. And 9 minutes of Baldassare Galuppi? I'm a fan of Il Buranello, but this isn't his best work, and the otherwise peripatetic Venetian composer never set foot on the Iberian Peninsula.



Both the guitaristic Scarlatti sonatas are well-played, though K 28 is a bit slow. Of the rest, the Seixas 2-section sonata in F minor is especially good.



I wish this recording had more Seixas and Scarlatti and Soler and less of the rest, but the sound-quality and performance are truly 5 stars.





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