Reference Recording: Scarlatti Sonatas

[@brucemoschel722]

I completely agree! This is a desert island recording for me! Great composer, great sonatas, great pianist! I must add that the Horowitz piano is one of the best! It has such a wonderful sound! Bravo!

[@chrisandersen5635]

Absolutely. Also, Horowitz tried to be the advocate for Clementi as well who is still underrated as a composer in my opinion.

[@geertdecoster5301]

Love them. There's something about these two glorious individual creations that makes them together sound and feel so good. Have a great day indeed 😁

[@jdistler2]

You are so right about why Horowitz and Scarlatti were synonymous. Mikhail Pletnev's two-disc Scarlatti collection on Virgin Classics stands as a modern reference for very much the same reasons.

[@steveschwartz8944]

Horowitz turned me on to Scarlatti. His first all-Scarlatti LP remains an evergreen favorite in my collection.

[@williamfarr8807]

Back in the late 1970s my piano teacher had me learn a few Scarlatti Sonatas. What wonderful music! I was unfamiliar with Scarlatti at that time, and I went out and bought a copy of the Horowitz recordings on vinyl to familiarize myself with his music. Thay are great recordings. I later got the CD with extra tacks, and I’m still enjoying it today. Scarlatti is among my favorite composers of the Baroque period.

[@nickmulgan7771]

Absolutely, Dave. One of the very top entries in the "expanding the repertoire" subset of reference recordings. The electricity he generates from a repeated note!

[@mike-williams]

I went from being mildly annoyed by having Scarlatti "filler" on various concert discs to OMG this is the best stuff EVAH. The Scarlatti disc became one of my desert island discs. It also points to Horowitz's seriousness in using his long sabbaticals from the concert stage to work through the oeuvres of Scarlatti, Clementi and others to bring them to the world's attention.

[@yiyuanxie7887]

This is no surprise for me at all, Dave! And to me Vladimir Horowitz is definitely among the greatest serious musicians who had ever lived on this planet. Look at his musical achievements - Clementi (another reference), Rach 3 (another reference), Sonata No.2 (reference), etc. In a large part his Schumann piano music is a long standing reference (at least to me), too. One of the aspects that tends to be overlooked is his musicianship more than anything else - the guy is a composer in blood just like Rachmaninov. It is just irony that his piano technology is so glaring and people just tends to ignore his musical quality. He must feel sad about it.

[@MarcusHK1]

What's remarkable about Horowitz's Scarlatti, it seems, is that his style of playing, not overly "pianistic", often appeals even to listeners who normally prefer Scarlatti played on the harpsichord.

[@rolandonavarro3170]

Interesting recommendation, dear David 👌

[@xicubelga]

Hello from Barcelona. I've got Scarlatti's complete keyboard sonatas played by Scott Ross on the harpsichord. They where launched by Erato/Warner record label. I'd appreciate your opinion about these performances if you ever talk about Scarlatti again. Thank you very much for your videos. I can't stop watching them.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I've already made a video about this set. Just check out the Scarlatti playlist.

[@Andrew87394]

Since the trailblazing of Horowitz, we've had of course Marcelle Meyer, Maria Tipo, and of course Pletnev, to name just three piano greats paying homage; and now we have Polina Osetinskaya's wondrous 2019 disc where she juxtaposes Scarlatti with Bach - just to underscore Dave's point.

[@Steve-ku2oh]

On KZbin there is a video of Osetinskaya electrifyingly playing K141. Tipo and Pletnev are both excellent; Pletnev's treatment of K404 is unique and amazing. I was disappointed in Horowitz's album.

[@pianoronald]

I‘m surprised nobody mentions Clara Haskil‘s beautiful LP of Scarlatti sonatas.

[@Andrew87394]

@@pianoronald I must explore that one.Thanks.

[@petervonberg2711]

Oh yes, oh yes !

[@marklhuff1]

Is it correct to say that Horowitz also put Clementi on the map (so to speak)?

[@SarahLeizer-fc1jq]

Perhaps a reference of Scarlatti's sonatas should consist of two subreferences, one for the piano and one for the harpsichord. I nearly always prefer the piano for baroque music but with Scarlatti's sonatas I make an exception: they can sound brilliant at the harpsichord. Scott Ross would be my first choice, with renditions that are full of life and spark.

[@johnwaring6443]

Wanda Landowska also performed them beautifully.

[@JanStanstrup]

I saw the title and thought it had to be Horowitz. What other big name has really devoted attention to Scarlatti?