Search - Domenico Scarlatti, Mikhail Pletnev :: Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas

Perfection!

marrano | 06/05/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This two-disc set received a great deal of praise when it was issued a few years ago, and with good reason: it is without question the most illuminating and ingenious recording of Scarlatti that I know (and I have heard hundreds of them). Although there is nothing "authentic" in this piano recording, in the sense of the pianist returning to original instruments or tuning, the listener does have the sense that Pletnev is connected to the origins of the music. Few people realize that Domenico Scarlatti was a little-known Italian court composer (his father wrotes operas) who went off to Iberia, and who subsequently gained inspiration from the folk music he heard in his exotic posting -- the sonatas are in many cases "translations" of the dances and songs of rural Portugal and Spain. That spirit, of song and rhythmic dance and compelling vocal lines, shines through in Pletnev's reading, in a way I have never heard with other performers. The experience of hearing these pieces is ultimately one of joy and revelation -- and it is as good on the 20th hearing as it is on the first! I've bought this set a dozen times over for friends ... doesn't that say something? An absolute classic."

Another essential Scarlatti set

Bradley P. Lehman | Dayton, VA USA | 02/27/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Not much needs to be said. This set and the single disc by Mark Swartzentruber are two extremely fine piano collections of Scarlatti's wonderful sonatas. They both surpass even the justifiably classic Horowitz interpretations.With performances at this level, it hardly matters what music is being played or what instrument it's on. The music unfolds as a completely fresh experience, even if one already knows all the notes as a player or listener. In a performance this great, every moment means something, and every moment leaves the immediate impression that the music could hardly go any other way (even if it's been surprising).Pletnev takes bold liberties with the score, both in tempo fluctuations and in dynamics. "Anything goes" in the service of the expression, and it all arises directly and naturally out of the musical content; nothing seems pasted on or willful. No artificial colors or flavors. Thorough preparation, yet an improvisatory freedom. It sounds as if he's having a great time.If you like this declamatory approach, you'll also like Swartzentruber, plus Enrico Baiano, Edward Parmentier, and Pierre Hantai on harpsichord. Obviously these sonatas could also be played more strictly and objectively, for structure, but that's for others to do on some other day. Scarlatti's music is inventive enough that it works regardless of the approach. For the dramatic and directly communicative angle, full of intensity and joy and humor, it just doesn't get better than this."

Great music...

Bradley P. Lehman | 02/23/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Disc two was on the stereo at the mucic store last night and after hearing three pieces I quickly forgot what I had came to buy and got Pletnev's Scarlatti instead."