Customer Reviews

Domenico Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

over the years i have become so interested in domenico scarlatti that i finally decided a complete edition was necessary. on the piano, naxos is slowly building one around the interesting if unwieldy concept of enlisting 30 or more young artists to complete the traversal. on harpsichord, there is the series by scott ross, now apparently out of print, and this new edition by pieter-jan belder.

recorded from 2000 to 2007, strictly following the sequence of ralph kirkpatrick catalog numbers, the mere achievement boggles the mind. so it is a triple pleasure to discover marvelous musicianship, splendid production values, and a stupefyingly low market price (yes, that's $3 a disc, more or less). the project is such a rare convergence of artistry, craftsmanship, integrity and vitality that one can hardly believe it was completed in the century of arrogance, incompetence and greed.

i have not yet auditioned every disc, but my random sampling suggests the engineering and production are exceptionally consistent. the sound stage places belder's instrument close to the listener, but without distortion. to provide some aural variety and historical interest, belder has used "every harpischord i could lay my hands on" -- which actually only includes modern copies of instruments by giusti, ruckers, mietke, zell and others. he even performs several of the sonatas on a fortepiano (which was invented in 1711 and available to scarlatti both in italy and in spain), an organ, or as trios with a baroque violinist and bassist. despite this variety, all the harpsichords have a pleasant timbre without either wiry thinness or clangorous weight, and it is extremely interesting to hear some of the sonatas in the nasal tones of an early pianoforte.

belder's performances are idiomatic and alert, with appropriate but not excessive ornamentation, and generally very well judged tempi, though he avoids the riotously fast tempi sometimes adopted by modern players. interpretively he strikes the balance necessary for such a long journey -- neither as fiery as pierre hantai nor as cerebral as gustav leonhardt, and with an informed sense of what baroque listeners valued in a harpsichord performance -- and there is plenty of life, pleasure and even wit in his recreations. a delight to encounter ... even if it takes eight years to listen to them all!

Pieter Jan Belder's 2000/2007 recording of Domenico Scarlatti's complete sonatas invites comparison with the Scott Ross complete set from 1984/85.
I own both of them and if i'm honest there is little between them.Both play with great skill and avoid the turbo injected speeds which some players adopt.In some sonatas i prefer Belder and in other Ross but the difference is marginal.They both play in a refreshingly straightforward manner with no eccentrics and just let the music pretty much speak for itself - in other words they put Scarlatti first and only serve the music.This is the hallmark of REAL professional harpsichordists.
As for sound,again in some discs i prefer Belder's sonics and in others Ross.Sometimes Belder has a little too much reverb and sometimes Ross is too closely miked.
My recommendation is to listen for the sound samples and judge accordingly.
I believe the Belder recording's are still available in seperate volumes if there are certain discs you like better than others.

The five stars are provisional. This is a serious "heads up" notice, not a review. Pieter Jan Belder is a masterful harpsichordist, a protege of the great Dutch keyboardist Bob van Asperen. Belder is the harpsichordist on many of the disks of the Brilliant Classics Complete Bach Edition.

For a mere $70.00, I'm about to acquire a lifetime supply of miniature masterpieces, the complete harpsichord sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti. If I listen to one a day, hearing it three or four times, I'm sure it will do more for my retirement well-being than Prozac, Coumadin, Flomax, Ginko Biloba, and multi-vitamins all together. Huzzah!

Scarlatti, born in the same year as J.S. Bach, court composer at the Spanish court, left a body of keyboard work, mainly harpsichord sonatas, of excellent quality and comparable in volume to JS Bach's harpsichord and organ works combined. Scarlatti's harpsichord sonatas are short pieces (3-5 minutes in most cases) with a mixture of Italian and Spanish style elements, and covering the full range from slow, emotional movements to highly technical, virtuoso pieces. Only a very limited number of complete recordings has ever been recorded, the one by Scott Ross being the most famous.
This recording by Pieter-Jan Belder is comparable in quality to Ross' recording: in both cases one hears performances of very high artistic integrity, with the harpsichord player having come to grip with one of the great works of art, bringing the music to life with very honest and personal interpretations. There are marked differences in interpretation between both artists, but in both cases the artist puts the music first; both use their considerable technical abilities at the service of the music and don't make a fireworks showcase.
Having listened to both recordings, I don't have a real artistic preference for one or the other when considering the complete cycle.
On the technical level, both recordings are very well made. Personally I slightly prefer the clear, crisp sound of the Belder recording (the result of putting some more distance between microphones and instrument ?) over the somewhat denser sound of the Ross recording.
At less than 2 Euro per disk, the Belder recording offers an exceptional quality/price ratio.

Scarlatti: The Keyboard Sonatas

I purchased this set after reading the generally favorable reviews noted above. After doing so, I compared the recordings against the three disc Ross anthology that I already owned. Although I found the Belder performances decent, and comparable to Ross, the sound quality was horrible, particularly for a relatively new recording. The sound is distant, as if a curtain had been placed between the harpsichord and the microphone, which is a shame given the quality of the performance. It really suffers in comparison to the Ross. I have subsequently bought the entire Ross set, and am very happy with it. I had paid $78 for Belder and $138 for the Ross, and feel the difference in price well worth it. My general rule of thumb with Brilliant Classics has been to go for recordings they have licensed from other publishers, and avoid their own productions (the Bach complete set (particularly the cantatas)) being a notable exception. Anyway, I would suggest not buying this set unless you cannot come up with another $60.

A Harpsichord Feast

This box set of compact discs presents the entire oeurve of Domenico Scarlatti's (not to be confused with his father, Alessandro) keyboard sonatas, all five hundred fifty five of them on thirty six compact discs, each performed and recorded in all of their glory in one convenient package, held together, boxed in a swivel open cardboard container with sturdy cardboard sleeves. On first audition, each of the works appear initially as a seemingly simple theme, each sonata in a single movement, in sonata ("A-B-A") form, obviously, with running times spanning between three and eight minutes, on average. The history and background behind the works is explained in a quite lengthy essay in the accompanying booklet.

The Keyboard Sonatas were composed by Scarlatti fils, a contemporary of Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, and Telemann. Domenico (who relocated first to the Portuguese court, then to the Spanish court in Madrid) composed these as keyboard exercises for the Princess Maria Barbara Braganza. The intricate technical demands of the Keyboard Sonatas surely indicates that the Princess must have been quite an accomplished artist on the instrument with something more than just a casually passing amateur interesting playing it. If these Sonatas were not technical pieces, requiring a high level of substantial keyboard skill and virtuosity, listener interest would decay after hearing but a meager handful of them, but within the brief form of the sonata, each and every one of them recorded here is original and different in its own right, although the instrument is the same. We have a collection of five hundred fifty five pieces for the same instrument-all different.

Some classical music admirers, most who can trace their admiration of their hobby back into the 1970's, might have made a prior acquaintance with some of the Scarlatti sonatas without realizing it. If you remember the old crossover recordings of Walter, turned Wendy Carlos, of "Switched On Bach" fame, with his/her sequel, "Well-Tempered Synthesizer," K. 209 in G, K. 164 in D, K. 430 in E, and K. 460 in D were given a particularly original treatment with the Moog Synthesizer at the time, as were G. F. Handel's "Water Music" and Monteverdi`s "Orfeo."

The set was organized and numbered by the Scarlatti scholar and musicologist, Kirkpatrick, some fifty years ago. But the K. numbers do not reveal any clue at all as to the order of composition.

A handful of the Sonatas are performed by both Pieter Jan Belder and an accompanying violinist.

In acquiring the Keyboard Sonatas, one has to resolve two arguments: Decision making as to whether to buy the Belder on Brilliant Classics or Scott Ross (originally on Erato) on Warner? As I have not heard any of the Scott Ross, I can comment only to say that if the sound even compares remotely with this boxed set of treasures and gems, it must be quite an accomplishment of artistry in its own right, too, but to be had for at least twice the price! And the second argument which the purchaser must settle is harpsichord versus piano (pianoforte) thing? Belder in his notes in the program booklet presents powerfully convincing argument for the harpsichord, and as these works are snapshots in miniature of the sound of their particular time in history of their composition, I would agree with him. Accomplished artists such as the late, great Vlad Horowitz managed to pull it off with the piano to record a score or so of the keyboard sonatas, quite successfully.

I would not recommend an overdose of this particular variety of ear candy. It is all a wonderful listening experience taken in meals of perhaps an hour or so (one album, together with perhaps a dozen morsels of these sweets at a time) for the new, novice listener unaccustomed to the instrument. And it will be a well appreciated addition, and I would recommend more extended hearings to the more experienced Baroque listener who is passing on to considering or making this purchase, having made his acquaintance previously with the keyboard music of the great J. S. Bach. I would remind those considering purchase that taken all together, the Keyboard Sonatas span the length of the great Bach's keyboard music and organ music combined!

For the price of about a hundred dollars, and in several instances much less than this with Marketplace vendors, indulge yourself in the purchase, even if you are a casual, serial keyboard admirer.

Great addition to any harpsichord collection. Played in sequence, beautifully recorded and played. I chose this over the Ross set.

While Bach in Germany was demonstrating that music in all the major and minor modes made sense, no matter what the key, in his "Well-Tempered Clavier", Domenico Scarlatti in Spain was simultaneously demonstrating that almost all music's rhythmic and melodic possibilities could be incorporated into hundreds of short keyboard pieces, also in the major and minor keys.

Nowadays, record companies, producers and keyboard players can consider the challenge of recording all 555 of these Scarlatti sonatas. One performer who met the challenge is harpsichordist Pieter-Jan Belder and the project took seven years. CDs have been released along the way and now the complete series is available in one box set.

Of the smaller installments, Volume 2 is the only one to come my way so far. It offers on 3 CDs the sonatas K 49 to K 98, recorded in 2001. Included are the 5 sonatas scored for violin, cello and harpsichord. Is it a surprise to hear that although a baroque violin and cello are used, while they are playing the harpsichord can barely be heard? It certainly surprised me to hear that Scarlatti sketched the idea for a Viennese waltz in K 55. In the accompanying booklet, Clemens Romijn highlights another surprising fact: not one of these sonatas survives in a manuscript written by the composer.

Belder and Brilliant Classics and Domenico Scarlatti have provided me with many hours of fascinating listening here. I recommend all or any part of this project to music lovers everywhere.