Search - Domenico Scarlatti, Balazs Szokolay :: Scarlatti: Piano Sonatas

Too rapid, too superficial

Leslie Richford | Selsingen, Lower Saxony | 05/05/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Balázs Szokolay?s rendition of a selection of Scarlatti sonatas on a modern concert piano suffers from the pianist?s insistence on using the music to demonstrate his technical facility rather than allowing it to express anything individual. Yes, the music here is quickly and easily recognizable as being by Scarlatti, but in the end the overly rapid tempi (Szokolay turns ?allegretto? into something approximating rather to ?prestissimo?) lead to a sameness of sound which, while offering an acceptable introduction to Scarlatti?s style, perhaps, is, in the long term, more likely to turn the listener away from this brilliant ?Spanish? composer (of course he was an Italian, but his style became decidedly Spanish after he had lived and worked in Madrid for many years). I am fortunate enough to own the 3-LP EMI box containing 33 of Scarlatti?s sonatas played by Russian-trained German pianist Christian Zacharias, and a comparison (a number of sonatas are played by both Zacharias and Szokolay) showed me that Zacharias is a completely different category ? his versions, equally virtuosic, provide nuance and a certain pensiveness, evidencing long and deep thought about the performance and structure of each piece and making Szokolay?s versions sound decidedly superficial. It is only on Tr. 4 (KV 481 Andante e cantabile) where Szokolay manages to play slower than Zacharias, but his version is still anything but ?cantabile?, and listening via headphones I could also detect some disturbing noises from the piano which relegate this CD further. All in all, and taken by itself, the disc is chirpy and entertaining, but for anyone who really wants to get to know Scarlatti, I can only recommend either Christian Zacharias or, as the more historical alternative, any of the many discs with these sonatas played on a harpsichord (Trevor Pinnock, Gustav Leonhard, Andreas Staier etc.).



By the by: The cover painting is a rather pale copy by Naxos house-artist Benjamin Chai of the famous portrait of Scarlatti by Velasco. This somewhat reflects the entire standard of the recording. Naxos has since released six or seven volumes of a projected complete Scarlatti sonatas edition using accomplished pianists such as Jenö Jandó and Konstantin Scherbakov, so that the Szokolay can be considered as Naxos taking its first steps in Scarlatti (the Szokolay recording was made in August 1988, when the company was barely a year old).

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Scarlatti's Sonatas on a worthy budget CD!

03/19/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You may noticed that Naxos is releasing a series of complete sonatas by Scarlatti by different performers. Whoa! With over 500 Sonatas that's going to be a lot of CDs (I've nothing against that, in case you want to know)! Although I have not heard them, I read positive reviews, which makes me think it would encourage customers to get them. Now, what about this particular one by Szokolay. Well, there was a time when I heard Szokolay played Clementi's Sonatinas. His performance on them makes me think that I would've played them a little slower instead of showing off how fast I could play the piano (which is why it wasn't long before I sold that CD). As for the Sonatas by Scarlatti, that I would keep. The performance of some of the pieces would make me think what the animated guys on the Lipton commercial would say: "Now that's brisk, baby!" I thought the 18 pieces are done very well. So I wouldn't think you would go wrong in buying this Naxos CD (especially for the price).There's another budget CD of Scarlatti's Sonatas played by Dubravka Tomsic. I would agree with the reviews on that. For a very cheap price, that's worth adding to the one by Szokolay."

Not so fast

Eloi | Ely, NV USA | 03/12/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Other reviewers have given the impression that Szokolay is a speed demon, but with the exception of K 146 (too fast) and K 141 (S can't quite maintain the appropriate but blistering pace he starts with), his tempos work well. K 132, for example, is speedy but "Cantabile" too, and a really neat reading. Best of all is K 96, one of the most difficult sonatas. S. plays as fast as Pletnev yet doesn't forget phrasing in a fine performance. I'd give this five stars if the recording were more consistent.



Scarlatti fans should snap this up, because it is probably NOT part of the ongoing Naxos complete Scarlatti project. Maybe it was a pilot or something--it is the earliest recorded of the series, does not have a volume number, and repeats several sonatas available on later discs (K 474 by Beatrice Long--vol. 4--and a whole bunch from vol. 2 by Michael Lewin).



I don't usually comment on cover art--the Scarlatti series with volume numbers all sport innocuous, forgettable landscapes of Italy and Spain. But the cover of this album, by "BS" Chai, is a hoot. An inept copy clearly modeled after the well-known Velasco painting of Scarlatti, it prompts the question "WHY?"

The clawlike appendage grasping the paper is the stuff of nightmares--something to look at while listening to the creepy K 466.



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