Scarlatti: Sonates vol. 2

Hantaï, Pierre

MIR 9920

Thank heaven Pierre Hantaï isn't contemplating recording all 555 of the Harpsichord Sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti! While it is a wonderful thing to have all of a composer's oeuvre available, it is also a burden. After all, who has the time to listen to 555 sonatas, who has the time to discover which are the great works, which are the mediocre works, and which are the awful works? The answer, of course, is that very few people have that much time, and fewer still that much will power. For most listeners, it is imperative to have the performer decide which are the pieces worthy of recording and which are the pieces worth ignoring, because otherwise, Scarlatti's 555 sonatas will remain terra incognita. In this, the second volume of his overview, Hantaï has chosen works that show Scarlatti to his best advantage. With a clean touch, a pure tone, a sure technique, and an open heart, Hantaï delivers brilliantly virtuosic, warmly humanistic, and deeply touching performances, performances that make the case for Scarlatti's best qualities as a composer. Although these are not "great" sonatas in the sense that Beethoven's sonatas are "great" sonatas -- not, that is, heaven-storming, heartrending sonatas -- in Hantaï's performances, they are delightfully entertaining and deliciously charming sonatas, which any music lover would be happy to know better. Mirare's sound is not too close, but still intimate; not too loud, but still immediate; and not too real, but still true.

CD

Muzyka klasyczna

Mirare

21-04-2006

3760020170202