Search - D. Scarlatti :: Domenico Scarlatti: 16 Sonatas - Ton Koopman

What a surprise!

Eloi | Ely, NV USA | 08/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The album opens with the trademark Koopman banging in the seldom-played K 420. But it gets much better.



K 513 is beautifully played. Koopman makes every line sound by articulation and by arpeggiating melodic parallel 6ths. He handles the three indicated tempos shifts (from pastorale moderato to molto allegro to presto) with aplomb.



K 461 is slower than most performances. Koopman struggles to make the two upper lines of the contrapuntal episode that starts the second half sound in real counterpoint, but in this case he needs the changeable dynamics of a piano.



K 216 is again slower than most play this sonata and to good purpose: Koopman really brings out the voices while still keeping the dance character. He uses the upper register (it has to be the upper keyboard on the Kroesbergen harpsichord modeled after Stephanini) for an isolated quaver that really stands out--I thought it was my cell phone at first! Koopman is just as clueless as everyone else in the episode that begins the second half, though.



Maybe the best sonata on the album is K 544. The way most play it, this sonata sounds empty, like a series of gestures that never quite get off the ground. Koopman brings a lot to this sonata, including drawn-out, very melodic ornamentation (and the added tailing-off notes to the trill marked "arbitri" actually attempt to realize the composer's suggestion!). Koopman plays the descending bass scales unequally, and the added rhythmic pulse adds a new dimension to the best performance I've ever heard of K 544.



As far as I can determine, this is Koopman's only recording of Scarlatti, and that's a pity. These interpretations shine with intensity of aspiration, something beyond the surface glitter."