Customer Reviews

Horowitz Plays Scarlatti

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This CD was previously released as Sony Classical's Horowitz The Complete Masterworks Recordings - Volume II The Celebrated Scarlatti Recordings. It was superb then, and this new album cover is nicer.

If you are a fan of Horowitz, then this is essential. Many of Horowitz's other albums open with a few Scarlatti sonatas, which was how I found that I loved Scarlatti. In particular, I would recommend "Discovered Treasures", which consists of previously unreleased Horowitz recordings which were left off his previous Columbia albums, including six Scarlatti sonatas.

A landmark album. The leaflet accompanying the CD is also a landmark piece of article.
I agree that if Horowitz did not play anything else worthwhile, he would still unmistakably be remembered for his Domenico Scarlatti.
There are younger pianists nowadays playing Scarlatti, even the ENTIRE set of Scarlatti sonatas.
The value of this album lies not on quantity - it is by no means the complete set, but each single piece is played to such incomparable and exemplary level that you really need go no further for marvellous Scarlatti.
Some modern pianists play very decent Scarlatti - Ivo Pogorelich, for instance. Horowitz however should be accredited for being the pioneer of this composer's keyboard works, and this pioneer had by the same token set the standard for such pieces.
Who else could that person be but Horowitz?

I bought this CD after watching Olga Kern perform several Scarlatti sonatas at a phenominal 3-standing-ovation concert. She hasn't recorded those sonatas yet, so this was the closest recording I could find.

The performance and the recording are both exceptional. I sampled just about every other performance of Scarlatti I could find on-line before picking this CD and was not disappointed. It is an older recording, so it's not quite as clean and hiss-free as a newer DDD, but it's still very, very good and Horowitz is so good you'll be mesmerized by the fast and flawless expression of some wonderful music.

This music is fast - very fast, and there's lots going on with different themes moving up and down and in and out. It's hard to believe this can be played with less than 3 hands. With Horowitz playing, you hear it all, and just go WOW.

There's a couple of extra tracks at the end of the CD which should have been left off - there's someone in the audience coughing, and it's distracting enough that I just skip these when listening.

This new release of Scarlatti sonatas played by the renowned pianist Vladimir Horowitz is a treasure of inestimable value. Listening to these timeless performances is among my greatest delights and it definitely belongs on a desert-island list of essential recordings.

This CD and its predecessor have been widely reviewed here and elsewhere, always with great praise and appreciation, so that there is little that I could add to the picture at this point. Nevertheless, I feel something should be said concerning the few negative comments that some other reviewers have made regarding the current release.

1. That Scarlatti's sonatas were written for the harpsichord alone and should not be performed on the piano.

In fact, Scarlatti wrote "keyboard exercises" which he played on harpsichords, clavichords, organs, and yes, the early pianoforte as well.

Furthermore, Scarlatti lived in Spain and his music was greatly inspired and influenced by the rich flamenco culture there. The melodies, rhythms, and percussive effects that Scarlatti realized in his music were reflections of sounds originating in the human voice, guitar, castanets and other folk instruments. Even the sound of flamenco boot stomps found their way into Scarlatti's music!

To insist that these pieces must now reside only on the harpsichord betrays a level of pedantry that Scarlatti himself would never have condoned.

2. That audience sounds in the last two tracks ruins the performances and they should have been left off of the CD.

Firstly, the idea of giving up ANY of the treasures left by this beloved performer is unthinkable. Even if the recordings HAD been seriously compromised by extraneous noises, the performances themselves are absolutely indispensable. But the actual noise level of the coughing is quite low, and really trivial. Recordings by other great performers, such as Glenn Gould or Enrico Caruso, have been plagued by far greater noise levels. Music lovers have never let these imperfections prevent their enjoyment of the magic that comes from true genius.

In conclusion, my only regret is that Horowitz did not leave us more Scarlatti recordings. But lacking that, what he did leave is of the finest quality, and will surely be enjoyed by music lovers for centuries to come.

The sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) are a treasure of variety and originality. Scarlatti wrote over 500 of them, and Horowitz plays a sample of them on this recording. With what sounds like effortless finger work, Horowitz plays these sonatas in myriad ways. Some forceful, some as delicate as fine lace, some slowly, some fast. A good program and representation of one of the most influential keyboard composers of history, and of Horowitz himself.

This recording is important for three reasons. First of all, it presents many Scarlatti sonatas previously unknown by the general listening public. Second, they are played by a master pianist, showing a side of his art few thought possible of him when the recording was first released.
Thirdly, the recording is just plain delightful to listen to. Sure, the tempi and ornaments seem almost impossible, and sometimes even a bit much, but consider the playfulness Horowitz brings to these sonatas,the poignant slow sonatas played with genuine care. The pedaling is amazing. Further, this CD includes several sonantas not on the original record.
If you don't know Scarlatti, these sonatas played by Horowitz are a great introduction. If you do know him, you will find plenty in these recordings to enjoy and to admire.

No words of wisdom here - just superlatives! Superb - amazing - fantastic CD - guaranteed to knock your socks off. Wonderfully played by the maestro who adored Scarlatti's music. Every note a diamond.

Horowitz's piano is superb but I cannot help complaining about one stupid audience coughing every five seconds in the last two sonatas, which ruins the music especially when you are using headphones (listen to the sampler). How was this bad recording included in this CD? Otherwise, wasn't it possible to "digitally" remove this annoying sound?

It would be funny, if it wasn't so sad.
We have learnt these days to respect composers' scores to the point of arguing over single notes in some of their works (e.g. the Hammerklavier Sonata); and we would consider it outrageous if not downright criminal if a guitarist were to issue a recording of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto. This is falsification of the spirit of the music!
But people who play, and those who buy, recordings of Scarlatti don't seem to have realised that they are offending against the spirit of his music in precisely the same way.
They evince no respect for the composer whatever.
I have long ago stopped being disgusted; but reading all these uninformed reviews about Horowitz's album is really irksome. Every now and then someone should stand up for this constantly maltreated composer and put these huge performing egos in their place.
Scarlatti was, like Chopin or Liszt, an EXPLORER of the resources of the harpsichord. He spent all his years on the Iberian peninsula in this mission of devotion both to the instrument and his brilliant royal pupil. These sonatas are not for KEYBOARD - meaning, they're not for organ, piano or glockenspiel, but for the HARPSICHORD. How easy to forget that the harpsichord strings are plucked, not hammered as on a modern piano. This means that its resources demand a totally different approach to performance - an approach impossible on a hammered instrument.
In short, playing Scarlatti on an instrument other than the one he wrote for is to show utter disdain for his genius in writing for it.
Horowitz goes some way towards ameliorating the deficiency of his instrument by his manner of playing these works. In the process, he makes an anaemic instrument of the piano. But it is merely a vain attempt to circumvent the piano's sonorous power, its great resonance and the fact that it has more than double the number of strings. It still doesn't sound like a harpsichord; and in addition he cannot reproduce the harpsichord-specific figurations that are designed (in practically every one of these sonatas) with the sound of the instrument in the composer's ear. So on both counts this recording is an exercise is sheer vanity: The pianist trying to do what is not possible on a piano, and in the attempt falsifying the spirit of the music.
I know that Horowitz worshippers are going to read this and fume about it.
My reply, in advance, is this: we had enough and more than enough hero worship in the music business. To hero worship dead pianists as if they were great geniuses (like Scarlatti) is even worse.
But I admit that Horowitz does some spirited things here. Purely from the point of view of pianism, this is worth 5 points.
But the interpretations are all cockeyed, as they have to be, seeing that it's the wrong instrument. So at least 1 point needs to be deducted for the instrument, and at least another 1 for conveying a false image of the music of Scarlatti. A final 1 point comes off for the atrocious sound technique of some of the tracks.
In sum: What you get on this album is Horowitz, not Scarlatti.
Only the notes were written by Scarlatti.
The "music" (whichever way you define what strikes your ears) is mostly by Horowitz.
(And I do hope you'll all give an uproarious welcome to the first harpsichordist to issue a complete recording of Chopin!)

WOW! What a great recording this is. The man is a true magician with Scarlatti and the sonatas he selects are not the usual fare. Wonderful addition to your CD collectionl.