Scarlatti sonatas E-Major.L30; E Major L23;b minor L49

Jntroduction and Scarlatti Sonatas

Scarlatti - Sonata in E major, L.430 / K.531
Scarlatti - Sonata in E major, L.23 / K.380
Scarlatti - Sonata in B minor, L.449 / K.27

 

Did you use the Kirkpatrick numbering or the Longo numbering? When were these recorded? What kind of piano?

Like your Bach, these are well played, in my opinion, however I am not too familiar with Scarlatti (partly because he wrote so much music for the keyboard)

 

opps, sorry I did not notice the heading to your post. That answers my first question.

 

I especially liked the introduction, how about a PianoSociety internet radio station? :lol:

To be serious, I can't make any constructive comments besides saying that I also found the B minor sonata a bit less inspired than the other two, but still quite enjoyable.

 

Lovely played, Raymond. In contrast with other commentors, I liked the last one best, perhaps because it is more subdued and 'deeper' than the average Scarlatti Sonatas (I believe the slow ones stand out from the crowd musically, not that I've heard them all ...). All are played with great skill, authority, and warmth. Bravo !

Shame about the off-tune piano in that famous E major sonata. I guess these were recorded over some span of time ?

I don't really know what to do with the spoken introduction... Yes we are planning to revive the Radio Show (for those of you who were around in early days) but even then I would not know how to make use of it, unless we were to combine this bit of text, together with these three sonatas, into one track. Technically, that is an option although it goes against the normal way we organize things, so I think it is not a good idea.

I will put these recordings on the site over the weekend or perhaps earlier when I have some time.

 

I am in trouble here... perhaps someone can help out ?

According to the title, the sonatas posted here are

Longo 30 - E Major
Longo 23 - E major
Longo 47 - B major

Now on this site we use the Kirkpatrick numbering (dont' ask why...). So I found this translation list on the web : http://www.classical.net/music/composer/works/scarlattid/lists/longo.html, which says:

L. 23 K. 380 P. 483 E Major Andante comodo
L. 30 K. 82 P. 25 F Major -
L. 49 K. 234 P. 286 G minor Andante

I believe this to be correct as it is consistent with my CD SheetMusic CD. Only the L.23 is what is actually played. The sonatas presented as L.30 and L.49 are not what they claim to be.... and this is already wrong on the CD listing (http://cdbaby.com/cd/smullyan). So which numbers are they ???
Any help appreciated.

 

Corrections

 

Reply

Dear Chris.Before you decide not to include my introductions,please wait untill
you get my whole CD. I would be very sorry to lose them, since they really add
something to the CD as a whole.A certain imtimacy would be lost without them.
Raymond

 

Re: Reply

Yes I appreciate that. The problem is that on PS we do not have the concept of a collection or CD. Pieces are grouped by composer and opus, not by the order on a CD. I understand it would be your preference to have the entire CD on one page by itself but we'll need to re-think our design for that.

 

Re: Corrections

Chris,

Track 8 is the b minor sonata L.449 / K.27
Track 6 is the E major sonata L.430 / K.531

It seems some "4s" dropped in the CD cover.

hth,
alf

 

Great ! Thanks a bunch for sorting that out

 

These three are up the site now. Great playing !

 

Sandro, I recorded these on a modern Steinway.
Raymond

 

> Sandro, I recorded these on a modern Steinway.

Sorry, misunderstanding by my fault. I've no doubt on your instrument (an excellent
modern piano, as you confirm). But, some pianists use it like an harpsichord, others as
a modern orchestra, others as computer keyboard....
The sound you choose to obtain in these pieces seems to me a fortepiano sound.
Sweet, intimate and also dry, without explosion in dinamics and pedalling.
IMHO a very fascinating choice (or casual but equally interesting), in a difficult contest: which is the correct sound for harpsichord music (but also classic and romantic music, which was not conceived
for instruments so similar to modern pianos) on modern piano?


All best,
Sandro.

 

As someone at least must have seen, I did include the entire translation table for Longo versus Kirkpatrick and even Pestelli at the bottom of the Scarlatti Sonata page. :evil: Hell of a job.

I really love the K.27 sonata and my reference is really something as it is the live video of Michelangeli. One of the very rare videos of him playing live and but for that he plays it 50% faster than you do, it is absolutely perfect. Not only note perfect but also all notes are equally cared about and the fast double notes are equally loud. But we should not compare with Michelangeli at Piano Society . Or anywhere. You play this sonata really well and even though it can be a bit more even here and there, it is really enjoyable to listen to. Much more difficult than it sounds.

The second (K.380) is rather famous too and many pianists have this is the recital (even Horowitz played it as in the famous Moscow concert). You play it very well too but the untuned piano disturbs a bit but you catch the mood in it which is very important.

I have very little experience with K.531 but is sounds like you pull this off best of them all. Perhaps it is me who does not know it well enough but all ornaments are executed really well and there is no problems or hesitations in your playing.

Overall, very well done!

 

Dear Robert. I am very much a Michelangeli fan, bt I think his playing of this
sonata is atrocious! Insanely too fast--all the beauty is lost . I like the recording of Jose Iturbi, as well as many others, who play it at a reasomable tempo.

Raymond

 

Heh yes, I remembered that after I had looked it up elsewhere on the web....
Never seen or heard anybody refer to the Pestelli numbering. Bad enought that we have two in use already.I just hope to god some silly sod will not go and renumber all of Bach and Mozart ...

 

>Dear Robert. I am very much a Michelangeli fan,

I too.


> bt I think his playing of this
sonata is atrocious! Insanely too fast--all the beauty is lost .

I agree at 80%. I find excellent Gilels live recording (Lugano, one of his last concerts,
there is a "Hermitage" CD) of this and other sonatas of that recital.

Sandro.