Domenico Scarlatti - Sonatas (Mikhail Pletnev)

Information

Composer: Domenico Scarlatti

CD1:

1. Sonata in D major, K 443
2. Sonata in D minor, K 1
3. Sonata in G major, K 283
4. Sonata in G major, K 284
5. Sonata in B minor, K 27
6. Sonata in E major, K 380
7. Sonata in A major, K 24
8. Sonata in C sharp minor, K 247
9. Sonata in F minor, K 519
10. Sonata in F major, K 17
11. Sonata in D minor, K 9
12. Sonata in A minor, K 3
13. Sonata in A major, K 404
14. Sonata in D minor, K 213
15. Sonata in D major, K 214

CD2:

1. Sonata in D major, K 96
2. Sonata in G major, K 146
3. Sonata in B minor, K 87
4. Sonata in G major, K 520
5. Sonata in C minor, K 11
6. Sonata in F minor, K 386
7. Sonata in F minor, K 387
8. Sonata in A major, K 268
9. Sonata in D minor, K 141
10. Sonata in A major, K 113
11. Sonata in F sharp minor, K 25
12. Sonata in B minor, K 173
13. Sonata in G major, K 523
14. Sonata in G minor, K 8
15. Sonata in G major, K 259
16. Sonata in D major, K 29

Mikhail Pletnev, piano
Date: 1994
Label: Virgin

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10

No question, folks: Mikhail Pletnev’s Scarlatti is all about the piano and piano playing. Would this virtuoso’s perfumed pedalings and stretched-to-the-max rubatos have curled Scarlatti’s wig? Maybe. Or what about Pletnev’s shameless recourse to all the articulation and voicing tricks critics abhor in modern players yet can’t get enough of from dead pianists? Purists may make a mad dash for the bunker, but this reviewer refuses to leave above ground, since his head’s already stuck in Cloud Nine! Put simply, I can’t resist such gorgeous sounding, awesomely controlled piano playing, bursting at the seams with spirited dynamism and the most playful musicality you can imagine. Listen to the endless dynamic gradations in the F major K. 17 Sonata, the D minor “Pastorale” Sonata’s 400 colors in the first 16 bars alone, plus astoundingly even trills and smudgeless scales everywhere else. Pletnev also achieves a kind of chromium-plated melody-accompaniment separation in the operatic C-sharp minor Sonata K. 247 that possibly out-Vladimirs Horowitz. Now that EMI Virgin has reissued this 1995 release at an absurdly cheap two-for-one midprice-disc asking price, all piano lovers can afford to indulge their wickedest Scarlatti fantasies through Pletnev’s delectable finger magic. [12/3/2001]

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday

More reviews:
http://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/d-scarlatti-keyboard-sonatas-0
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2008/Mar08/scarlatti_5181862.htm
http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/v/vir61961a.php
https://www.amazon.com/Scarlatti-Keyboard-Sonatas-Domenico/dp/B00005IA25

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Domenico Scarlatti (Naples, 26 October 1685 – Madrid, 23 July 1757) was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified primarily as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style and he was one of the few Baroque composers to transition into the classical period. Like his renowned father Alessandro Scarlatti, he composed in a variety of musical forms, although today he is known mainly for his 555 keyboard sonatas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domenico_Scarlatti

***


Mikhail Pletnev (born 14 April 1957) is a Russian concert pianist, conductor, and composer. In 1974, he entered the Moscow Conservatory, studying under Yakov Flier and Lev Vlassenko. At age 21, he won the Gold Medal at the VI International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1978. His piano repertoire is extensive and includes The Seasons, many Scarlatti sonatas, Pictures at an Exhibition, .... He found Russian National Orchestra in 1990, the first non-government-supported orchestra in Russia since 1917. Pletnev has made a number of recordings with Deutsche Grammophon, Pentatone and Melodiya.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Pletnev

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!