Marvelous sound!!!
rogerha | SAO PAULO, SP Brazil | 12/13/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"It was a great surprise for me listen to this music a few years ago... I consider Anzellotti's interpretation of Scarlatti music simply marvelous! And the accordion choice was great too!
The CD title is very appropriate... this music remembers happiness and life celebration!"
A first choice - in the absence of any competition
Discophage | France | 09/23/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"If you are into the great keyboard classics played on the accordion, and in the absence of Mie Miki's Dutch Vanguard Scarlatti recording, this is the one to get. Not that there are many other choices, either.
Now this sounds like a double-tongued endorsement, doesn't it? To a certain extent, it is, which is not to deny the merits of this disc.
Not everybody will have a taste for the great keyboard classics played on the accordion, I suppose. Still, I like to think that it is through clichéd prejudice and ignorance - clichéd prejudice, because the instrument has a strong association with ballroom music (the French Bal-musette) and other popular genres, and it is difficult to associate it with, say, Bach or Scarlatti or Mussorgsky. Ignorance because, judging from my own experience, to hear it is to believe in it.
In fact the accordion is a great instrument for playing the keyboard classics. It offers, I find, the best of two worlds: it has all the sharpness of attack and dazzling virtuosity of the keyboard instruments (harpsichord and piano), AND the long breath of the wind instruments, the ability to sustain sound from one note to another rather than fake it through resonance and decay time as with piano and harpsichord. Add to that the unique, lush timbral colors of the instrument. It sounds very much like the organ, but doesn't have the muddy, over-thick bass textures of that instrument. Because of all these qualities the accordion is a great instrument for contemporary music, but also for the baroque classics, Bach, Scarlatti or Soler), and even the Romantic ones (there are at least two recordings of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition).
So this Scarlatti recital by Anzelotti is very welcome. He plays well, with pyrotechnic virtuosity when the works call for it, and a measure of fussiness of phrasing in some (as K146), but nothing detrimental. Still, do be aware of some drawbacks. First, there are only 15 sonatas totaling to 58 minutes of music. Why limit intake of something so delicious? Winter & Winter could have accommodated 15 more minutes of it. As mentioned above, Dutch Vanguard published in 1997 another Scarlatti recital played on accordion by Mie Miki, with 19 sonatas and a TT of 68 minutes. Where Anzelotti's selection favors the lesser-known Sonatas, with only K39, 146, 544 & 545 belonging to the most popular (a choice that can be viewed either as an asset or a drawback), Miki has a fine mixture of the warhorses and the less-often played (the only one featured on both recitals is K6), and plays them excellently. Add to that that the liner notes (in English only) are fairly minimal (just a general blurb on Scarlatti and Spanish music, nothing on the instrument or the performer), with a booklet that lavishly reproduces 9 paintings by Georg Baselitz (reducing their size from anywhere between 3 and 14 square meters to a maximum of 15 square centimeters along the way), with absolutely no explanation given as to this choice and the link between the artist and the composer, or the instrument, or the performer. Just showy. So all this would make Mikki a clear first choice over Anzelotti, but unfortunately her disc is, first, not even listed on this website (I wonder why, as you can find the companion disc devoted to Rameau, Couperin and Daquin, see hereunder), and second, rarely available even on the European sister companies where it is listed, under ASIN B0000245GN.
Bottom line: in the absence of Miki, this is a first choice when it comes to Scarlatti played on the accordion, despite the mild frustration it entails (give us more!) Truth is (and sadly), there aren't many other choices: I am aware of only one other half-CD devoted to 12 Scarlatti Sonatas played on the accordion (the other half is Soler), by Hugo Noth, on the obscure Swiss label GMS, which I've seen listed nowhere.
Now I've had a dream: a recording of the complete keyboard sonatas of Scarlatti played on the accordion. Will I live long enough to see it?
And now my little bonus for those who'd want to delve deeper in the great keyboard classics played on that marvelous instrument. Many felicities in store for the daring! I strongly advise that you try:
Bach Goldberg Variations by Stephan Hussong on Thorofon B000027AA9 (not listed here, see on the European sister companies)
Bach Goldberg Variations by Vayrynen on Alba (Goldberg Variations Played on the Accordion)
Bach Partitas 2, 3, 5 by Hussong on Denon (Bach: English Suites Nos. 2, 3, 5)
Bach Partitas 2, 4, three Chorales by Hussong on Denon (Stefan Hussong plays Johann Sebastian Bach)
Bach Inventions and Sinfonias by Janne Rättyä on Castigo, see European sister companies under ASIN B00006IQNV
Couperin Daquin Rameau by Mie Miki on Vanguard, French Baroque Music
Frescobaldi by Hussong on Thorofon (Stefan Hussong plays Frescobaldi)
Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition by Friedrich Lips (with contemporary works) on Russian Disc (Pictures At An Exhibition (Mussorgsky, Boellmann, Banshchikov, Gubaidulina) - F. Lips (The Stars of Russian Bayan))
Mussorgsky Pictures Stravinsky Tango, 3 movements from Petrushka on 2 accordions by Crabb and Draugsvoll on EMI (Duos for Classical Accordions)
Antiquities (Bach Italian Concerto, Dowland, Isaac, Machaut): Nobuko Imai (viola) and Mie Miki on BIS (Antiquities)
"
Track Listings (15) - Disc #1