Customer Reviews

Scarlatti: Piano Sonatas

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You may noticed that Naxos is releasing a series of complete sonatas by Scarlatti by different performers. Whoa! With over 500 Sonatas that's going to be a lot of CDs (I've nothing against that, in case you want to know)! Although I have not heard them, I read positive reviews, which makes me think it would encourage customers to get them. Now, what about this particular one by Szokolay. Well, there was a time when I heard Szokolay played Clementi's Sonatinas. His performance on them makes me think that I would've played them a little slower instead of showing off how fast I could play the piano (which is why it wasn't long before I sold that CD). As for the Sonatas by Scarlatti, that I would keep. The performance of some of the pieces would make me think what the animated guys on the Lipton commercial would say: "Now that's brisk, baby!" I thought the 18 pieces are done very well. So I wouldn't think you would go wrong in buying this Naxos CD (especially for the price).

There's another budget CD of Scarlatti's Sonatas played by Dubravka Tomsic. I would agree with the reviews on that. For a very cheap price, that's worth adding to the one by Szokolay.

In 1999, Naxos began a long-term project of recording the complete keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti (1685 -- 1757) on the piano using different performers on each CD. The first volume was by Eti Anjaparidze Scarlatti: Complete Keyboard Sonatas, Vol. 1. A total of 13 CDs have appeared by pianists familiar and unfamiliar. Many more CDs will be required to record the 555 or so sonatas. I eagerly await each new recording.

Before beginning its series, Naxos had released in 1994 a recording of selected Scarlatti sonatas recorded in 1988 by a young Hungarian pianist, Balazs Szokolay (b. 1961). Szokolay has recorded several CDs for Naxos and other labels focusing on romantic music. He is possessed of a formidable pianistic technique. Fortunately, Naxos tends to keep its catalogue, including this recording, available. Szokolay's Scarlatti has tended to be overlooked with the progress of Naxos' Scarlatti cycle, and I wanted to revisit it.

Szokolay's CD consists of 18 sonatas which are split equally between works with a Kirkpatrick listing over or under K.250, which I take arbitrarily as a dividing point between early and late works. The selection includes a good representation of works in the minor, with 8 works minor key and 10 sonatas in the major. Most single CD anthologies tend to feature the more frequently played of Scarlatti's output, and this CD is no exception. At least ten of the sonatas on this recording are among the composer's better known works which appear on CDs regularly. To Szokolay's credit, a number of less well-known works are presented as well.

Szokolay plays with lightness and generally quick tempos. He offers good attention to dynamics, mood and phrasing. He offers a good single CD introduction to Scarlatti, in a field in which there is substantial competition, both on the piano and on the harpsichord. I would enjoy hearing him perform Scarlatti further, perhaps in a CD in the ongoing Naxos series with a new selection of sonatas.

For those new to the composer, Scarlatti's works are short, binary compositions which feature Spanish textures, strong rhythms, repeated notes, cascading arpeggio and scale passages, and a variety of moods. The earlier works tend to be more virtuosic and lively with the latter works exploring a more extended emotional range. The sonatas are quirky, idiosyncratic, and varied.

I enjoyed Szokolay's readings of familiar sonatas, such as the d minor, K. 9, with its lilting, haunting theme, and the lively, heavily ornamented sonata in G major, K. 146. The sonata in C major, K. 132, which I have played myself, gets a faster reading than usual with its falling arpeggio theme. The sonata in E, K. 380, a frequently performed piece, begins with a quiet march and develops strongly as it progresses. The virtuosic early sonata in D K. 96, with its repeated notes and long runs receives an idiomatic performance as do two rapid fire tocatta like works in d minor, K. 141 and e minor K. 198.

Some of the less familiar, more lyrical sonatas particularly impressed me. I enjoyed Szokolay's reflective performances of the f minor sonata, K. 481 and the singing E flat major sonata, K. 474. The early poignant sonata in b minor, K. 87 receives a surprisingly effective interpretation as does a sonata that was unfamiliar to me, the sonata in the rarely used key of c sharp minor, K. 247, which is angular and contrapuntal in character.

Szokolay's CD offers an excellent overview of Scarlatti which will probably appeal most to listeners familiar with the composer. The CD makes an excellent prelude to the ongoing Naxos Scarlatti series. I was pleased to revisit it.

Robin Friedman

Balázs Szokolay’s rendition of a selection of Scarlatti sonatas on a modern concert piano suffers from the pianist’s insistence on using the music to demonstrate his technical facility rather than allowing it to express anything individual. Yes, the music here is quickly and easily recognizable as being by Scarlatti, but in the end the overly rapid tempi (Szokolay turns “allegretto” into something approximating rather to “prestissimo”) lead to a sameness of sound which, while offering an acceptable introduction to Scarlatti’s style, perhaps, is, in the long term, more likely to turn the listener away from this brilliant “Spanish” composer (of course he was an Italian, but his style became decidedly Spanish after he had lived and worked in Madrid for many years). I am fortunate enough to own the 3-LP EMI box containing 33 of Scarlatti’s sonatas played by Russian-trained German pianist Christian Zacharias, and a comparison (a number of sonatas are played by both Zacharias and Szokolay) showed me that Zacharias is a completely different category – his versions, equally virtuosic, provide nuance and a certain pensiveness, evidencing long and deep thought about the performance and structure of each piece and making Szokolay’s versions sound decidedly superficial. It is only on Tr. 4 (KV 481 Andante e cantabile) where Szokolay manages to play slower than Zacharias, but his version is still anything but “cantabile”, and listening via headphones I could also detect some disturbing noises from the piano which relegate this CD further. All in all, and taken by itself, the disc is chirpy and entertaining, but for anyone who really wants to get to know Scarlatti, I can only recommend either Christian Zacharias or, as the more historical alternative, any of the many discs with these sonatas played on a harpsichord (Trevor Pinnock, Gustav Leonhard, Andreas Staier etc.).

By the by: The cover painting is a rather pale copy by Naxos house-artist Benjamin Chai of the famous portrait of Scarlatti by Velasco. This somewhat reflects the entire standard of the recording. Naxos has since released six or seven volumes of a projected complete Scarlatti sonatas edition using accomplished pianists such as Jenö Jandó and Konstantin Scherbakov, so that the Szokolay can be considered as Naxos taking its first steps in Scarlatti (the Szokolay recording was made in August 1988, when the company was barely a year old).

Other reviewers have given the impression that Szokolay is a speed demon, but with the exception of K 146 (too fast) and K 141 (S can't quite maintain the appropriate but blistering pace he starts with), his tempos work well. K 132, for example, is speedy but "Cantabile" too, and a really neat reading. Best of all is K 96, one of the most difficult sonatas. S. plays as fast as Pletnev yet doesn't forget phrasing in a fine performance. I'd give this five stars if the recording were more consistent.

Scarlatti fans should snap this up, because it is probably NOT part of the ongoing Naxos complete Scarlatti project. Maybe it was a pilot or something--it is the earliest recorded of the series, does not have a volume number, and repeats several sonatas available on later discs (K 474 by Beatrice Long--vol. 4--and a whole bunch from vol. 2 by Michael Lewin).

I don't usually comment on cover art--the Scarlatti series with volume numbers all sport innocuous, forgettable landscapes of Italy and Spain. But the cover of this album, by "BS" Chai, is a hoot. An inept copy clearly modeled after the well-known Velasco painting of Scarlatti, it prompts the question "WHY?"
The clawlike appendage grasping the paper is the stuff of nightmares--something to look at while listening to the creepy K 466.

Balazs Szokolay plays these sonatas at breakneck speed. This works fine for the fast sonatas but his andantes becomes allegros. The expressiveness of the slow sonatas is lost and becomes mechanical. He also makes personal choices when it comes to ornaments and deviates from the score. That is not really a problem as much as the fast tempos.