Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
Keyboard Sonatas
Javier Perianes (piano)
rec. 2024, Leibniz Saal, Hannover Congress Centrum, Germany
Harmonia Mundi HMM902768 [78]
It seems to be the season for Domenico Scarlatti – my previous review was an Onyx recording of his keyboard sonatas, mixed in with toccatas by his father. Probably just a coincidence, as it seems unlikely that the 340th anniversary of his birth is cause for special treatment from the labels (were that so, we would see a rush of Bach and Handel recordings as well).
Javier Perianes is a Spanish pianist, with a substantial portfolio of recordings, mostly for Harmonia Mundi, dating back almost twenty years. My colleagues have praised some of his earlier recordings, including Debussy (review) and Ravel (review). By one of those strange quirks of coincidence, I saw him perform with the NZSO last week, playing Ravel and de Falla, and I was exceptionally impressed.
The range of approaches to Scarlatti’s sonatas on the piano is quite extraordinary: we have the cool harpsichord-like Angela Hewitt and the Romanticisation of dynamics and tempo of Yevgeny Sudbin and Mikhail Pletnev. Towards the centre is Lucas Debargue, whose set of 52 sonatas on Sony impressed Stephen Greenbank greatly (review), though I was less enthused. Federico Colli on Chandos takes some of the sonatas to quite ridiculously (in my opinion) drawn-out lengths, but elsewhere is very impressive, and certainly has enthused Richard Hanlon (review). It is a great regret that Murray Perahia chose not to return to Scarlatti as his seven sonatas on a disc mainly dedicated to Handel are exceptional. I also wonder what Víkingur Ólafsson’s Scarlatti would be like.
Perianes begins with one of my favourites, K491 in D, which for me had been “owned” by Perahia, but Perianes adds a lot of colour in his emphasis on certain notes, which adds even more to the sonata. One of the jewels of the collection is K466, and its poetic melancholy suits Perianes perfectly. It is a quite stunning performance, and the same duration as Sudbin’s, which demonstrates that his approach does not imply slow (Colli’s is two minutes longer!). K125, which follows, is a complete contrast, with its non-stop skittering notes, and here Perianes is twenty seconds (in a little over two minutes) slower than Sudbin, who goes hell for leather in an amazingly dextrous performance, and as an encore, it would be a showstopper. Perianes lets the melody play out a little more, while still showcasing his virtuosity. I could go on, but I would be repeating myself very quickly. The programme is a mix of the well-known and the less common, and organised in a way that provides good contrast.
The clues to Perianes’s approach to Scarlatti are there in his back catalogue choices: Debussy, Bartók’s third concerto but not the first two, Mompou, Schubert’s Impromptus, Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte. I think you will have surmised that he prefers the introspective and poetic, and thus it is with Scarlatti. That’s not to say that his playing is dreamy and slow; his tempi are quite normal, but there is a gentleness that underlies the notes that is very beguiling. It also smooths over some of the relentlessness that I find in a lot of Scarlatti recitals.
The sound quality is excellent – the piano sounds rich and clear – and there are no extraneous noises (by which I mean sniffing or breathing). The booklet notes are equally fine: they outline the origins of the Scarlatti sonatas, and also provide an analysis of each work that is both detailed and comprehensible to the non-pianist.
I think you will have gathered by now that I am very impressed by Perianes’s Scarlatti. I will go as far as to say that it is the most satisfying Scarlatti recording I’ve heard. It’s not the most electrifying – try either of Sudbin’s for full-on pyrotechnics for that – but for sheer musicality, this is exceptional.
David Barker
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Contents
Sonata K. 491 in D major
Sonata K. 141 in D minor
Sonata K. 185 in F minor
Sonata K. 492 in D major
Sonata K. 238 in F minor
Sonata K. 193 in E-flat major
Sonata K. 128 in B-flat minor
Sonata K. 466 in F minor
Sonata K. 125 in G major
Sonata K. 263 in E minor
Sonata K. 386 in F minor
Sonata K. 462 in F minor
Sonata K. 380 in E major
Sonata K. 447 in F-sharp minor
Sonata K. 448 in F-sharp minor
