Alexandre Tharaud plays Domenico Scarlatti: 18 Sonatas (2011)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 226 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 156 Mb | Scans ~ 33 Mb
Genre: Classical | Label: Virgin Classics | # 5099964201603 | Time: 01:08:05
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 226 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 156 Mb | Scans ~ 33 Mb
Genre: Classical | Label: Virgin Classics | # 5099964201603 | Time: 01:08:05
The biggest surprise on this wonderfully exuberant and exhilarating disc comes with the very first notes: the piano tone is rich and full, worlds away from the slightly distant, musical-box tone that is often thought appropriate for recordings of Domenico Scarlatti's sonatas on a modern concert grand. But as the soundworld suggests, Tharaud is totally unapologetic about playing these pieces – all originally composed for harpsichord even though the earliest fortepianos were in circulation in Scarlatti's time – on a piano. In the sleevenotes, Tharaud says that of the four baroque keyboard composers that he has recorded so far – Bach, Couperin, Rameau and now Scarlatti – it's the last whose music is most suited to this treatment. His selection of sonatas is chosen for maximum variety, with a group in which the Spanish inflections of flamenco and folk music can be heard, others in which he gets a chance to show some dazzling technique, alongside those in which the playfulness is replaced by profound introspection.