Alexandre Tharaud plays Scarlatti

 

Release Date: 03/08/2011 Label: Virgin Classics Number of discs: 1 Composer: Domenico Scarlatti Performer: Alexandre Tharaud cd info/ buy

Review:

Having recorded discs of Bach, Couperin and Rameau’s keyboard music, Alexandre Tharaud now turns his attention to Scarlatti. In so doing he cements his already considerable reputation as one of the world’s foremost interpreters of baroque keyboard music. Many of the most celebrated pianists of past and present have left great Scarlatti recordings including Horowitz, Michelangeli, Pletnev, Schiff and more recently Yevgeny Sudbin. Tharaud dedicates his recital ‘in memory of Clara Haskil’ who was closely associated with La Chaux-de-Fonds where this disc was recorded. She was noted for her superb Mozart and Scarlatti interpretations. Haskil left a recording of 11 Scarlatti sonatas including the glorious C major sonata K132 which Tharaud commits to disc here. Tharaud brings all of the resources of the modern grand piano to Scarlatti’s music and is unapologetically pianistic in his approach. He deploys a ravishing range of tone colour to the works, exquisitely executed ornamentation and a virtuoso technique. In the first sonata in the recital (K239 in F minor) he brings out the Spanish dance and flamenco elements: one can hear the click of the castanets and the Spanish dance. Tharaud also creates wonderful Spanish guitar effects in the ensuing G minor sonata K8 which punctuate breathtakingly embroidered contrapuntal lines. Overall, this is an absolutely superb piano recital and a glorious addition to the Scarlatti discography.

 

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Scarlatti - Violin Transcriptions - Tedi Papavrami, violin

Scarlatti - Violin Transcriptions - Tedi Papavrami, violin
Violin | Eac, flac, cue | log, cover | 1 CD, 284 MB
October 10, 2006 | Aeon | RapidShare

A the age of 4, Tedi Papavrami started studying the violin with his father, Robert Papavrami, a renowned teacher who thoroughly influenced his further artistic development.

At the age of 8 he performed in public Sarasate’s Airs Bohémiens with the Tirana Philharmonic Orchestra and three years later the 1st Violin Concerto by Paganini. In September 1982 thanks to the flutist Alain Marion, the French Government offered him a Scholarship in France. Pierre Amoyal was his teacher at the CNSMP Conservatoire in Paris.

Winner of the Rodolfo Lipitzer Competition in Italy in 1985, he was unanimously awarded the First Prize of the Conservatoire in Paris in 1986 and in 1987 he obtained the licence of the Conservatory in Lausanne. Then he pursued alone his musical quest guided by Zino Francescatti and Viktoria Mullova, before being awarded the George Enescu Prize by the SACEM in 1992 and 1993 he won the First Prize of the Sarasate Competition in Pamplona, as well as the Special Prize of the Public. Since then Tedi Papavrami performed throughout Europe, in South Africa, Turkey, Japan, Israel, etc… with famous orchestras such as the Bayerische Rundfunk Symphonieorchester, the Bologna Orchestra, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Orchestre de Paris, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège… as well as in prestigious festivals: Montreux, Schleswig Holstein, Newport, etc…

He also toured Japan with the 24 Caprices by Paganini (Mr Papavrami is today one of the few violinists, who are performing this Integral for solo violin in concert) and South America playing Mozart’s Concertante.

In addition, he has been acclaimed for his interpretation of the complete Bach Sonatas and Partitas he presented in concert on the same evening near Paris.
He appeared with such distinguished conductors as Kurt Sanderling, Christopher Hogwood, Antonio Papano, Louis Langrée, Gilbert Varga, Zdenek Macal, Jean Claude Casadesus, Armin Jordan to name but a few of the prestigious conductors he already worked with. Versatile artist, Tedi Papavrami also regularly performs in chamber music and his favorite partners are Philippe Bianconi, Huseyin Sermet, Paul Meyer, Raphael Oleg, Gary Hoffman, Gerard Caussé, Isabelle Faust, etc. ..

Mr. Papavrami was invited to shoot a TV film “Les Liaisons Dangereuses (part of Danceny), opposite to Catherine Deneuve, Rupert Everett, Nastassja Kinsky and Danielle Darrieux both as an actor and violinist. This series was shown all over the world and a CD with the extracts of works played in the film has been issued by Pan Classics. For the AEON label, Tedi Papavrami signed recordings of the Sonatas and Partitas for violin solo by Bach, Scarlatti’s Sonatas (Transcriptions made by the artist himself and available by Ries and Elder www.rieseler.de); as violinist of the Schumann Quartet he recorded both Chausson and Fauré’s Quartet hailed by the critic: DIAPASON D’OR, CHOC of the review Le Monde de la Musique, 10 of Repertoire.

2007 sees the release of the Sonatas for violin and Piano by Brahms with Philippe Bianconi His last appearances have been hailed by both the public and the critic : Orchestre Philharmonique of Radio France and Armin Jordan (Chostakovitch No 1), the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg under Jerzy Semkov (Brahms), Orchestre National de Liège (Mendelssohn) and MDR in Leipzig (Shostakovitch No 1), RTVE in Madrid (Mendelssohn), Berner Sinfonieorchester (Berg), Valladolid (Barber), Nice Philharmonic (Sibelius), as well as MDR Leipzig (Brahms), Aarhus (Sibelius), Valencia (Paganini No1) etc… Another main interest of Tedi Papavrami is literature and in the year 2000 parallel to his activities of musician, he has been recognized as the official translator of the Albanian writer Ismail Kadaré, for the publishing house Fayard. Among hightlights of the season, concerts with the Orchestre Philharmonique of Radio France in Salle Pleyel in Paris (Saint Saens No 3), in Leipzig with the MDR Orchestra (Sibelius), in Aarhus/Denmark (Brahms), Valencia (Paganini No 2), as well as chamber music concerts with Soprano Dame Felicity Lott and the Schumann Quartet.

Tedi Papavrami plays a violin built for him in 2005 by Christian Bayon.

CD Content

01 Sonata in A Minor, Kk 54
02 Sonata in C Major, Kk 32
03 Sonata in F Minor, Kk 466
04 Sonata in F Minor, Kk 481
05 Sonata in C Minor, Kk 11
06 Sonata in A Major, Kk 380
07 Sonata in B Minor, Kk 87
08 Sonata in D Minor, Kk 141
09 Sonata in G Minor, Kk 426
10 Sonata in G Minor, Kk 185
11 Sonata in D Minor, Kk 9
12 Sonata in A Major, Kk 322

Scarlatti - 32 Sonatas - Fou Ts'ong

Scarlatti - 32 Sonatas - Fou Ts'ong
Piano | Eac, flac, cue | log, cover | 1 CD, 253 MB
April 8, 2003 | Meridian | RapidShare

On this disc the Polish-trained and Chopin Prize Winning Chinese pianist gives us 32 solo keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti. We get some of the most colorful and intent Scarlatti playing that has so far been captured on commercial discs. You can get the pianist doing very well in Chopin concertos, and a Beethoven/Haydn concerto disc, plus other repertoire - look at Meridian or Sony. Those are worthy efforts of varying sorts, no doubt. This Scarlatti disc however,tops all. So far it may be the very best time this player has ever spent in a recording studio, and we listeners are very, very fortunate to have access.


Scarlatti spent most of his life at the Spanish and Portuguese court. He eventually penned over five hundred small works, called sonatas; but these works are very much freer in musical form and musical fancy than strict sonata forms would suggest. Scarlatti wrote for himself, and for the Spanish and Portuguese princesses at court whose music tutor he mainly was. If either of those two ladies could handle these small but priceless musical gems, she must have been something more than a young dilettante playing in the court or royal apartments, as this very special music would have immediately lifted her, above even her high royal stations, thanks to the ineffable spiritual openings that this odd and unique keyboard music - rather out of its own time - embodies.

From the larger group, Fou Ts'ong has selected 32 sonatas. He has probably arranged them for contrast, or at least that is the net result of hearing this treasure of a disc right through.

Whattitis?

Just about as good as Scarlatti playing on the modern grand piano gets. That's what.

Scarlatti wrote for the dominant keyboard instrument of his era, which was the harpsichord. Some of his works are sometimes played on the even more intimate clavichord - a household instrument of delicate sound and nuance which would have served in the most private musical moments. Problem is, how may a performer best realize Scarlatti on the modern instrument?

Fou Ts'ong solves this puzzle by adopting a Glenn Gould-like detachè touch; mixed in with plenty of Wilhelm Kempff clarity, mixed in with a remarkable musical intensity of brooding-musing inwardness and fantasy, mixed further yet in, with what seem like passing natural seasons of remarkable tonal color (saturated tonal color, but not so excessive as to light up with anything but bejewelled inner fire, all glowing). Now. This sort of playing cannot be taken for granted, no matter who manages it. I have not particularly heard such inwardness, steeped in fancy and concentration, since the famed set of complete Chopin Nocturnes recorded by legendary Czech player, Ivan Moravec. No waywardness or eccentric mushing about here, though; the music is completely center stage, every note.

Now mixing it up physically like Fou Ts'ong does here might not have worked very well; the disparate elements or dimensions of his playing could easily have fallen apart into discrete elements that did not suit a musical whole. He took great risks taking on Scarlatti like this, and he might well have failed, dismally. Happily, that is not at all the case with this disc.

Is this Scarlatti for people who dislike Scarlatti? Hard to answer. Fou Ts'ong is not about getting our musical attention here with flash - though his readings embody plenty of inwardly banked emotional and musical fire, brought down so dangerously to humanity from Olympus by dear old Prometheus according to ancient Greek myths. One hopes none of us will ever be chained to a rock for daring such musical heights. The nuanced, sparkling, and color palette on display here is unusual, brought up from whatever secret vaults are privy. These special colors and lights are revealed, not for their own sake (even as guarded personal treasure); but rather, shown in heart to heart confidence, shared vulnerably among real friends who love music.

Those who are already Scarlatti fans will no doubt be glad to add this disc to any existing fav shelves, even if already loaded with select, dear choices. Listeners new to the composer may also be persuaded; just do not expect that all Scarlatti will always be played like Fou Ts'ong manages on this disc. If he could lift consistently to this marvelous musical level, I would beg him to do all of the 555 sonatas or so - even knowing the risks ahead of time. Some players do not always do their best work in the recording studio, and perhaps Fou Ts'ong has sometimes been one of them. Here, however, he has been caught by the engineers at something like his better or best, most musically amazing and formidable self. It may be that playing like this when he was younger was what got him the Chopin prize in the first place. Good to know that the mature musician still has, deepened and seasoned, what his earlier piano competition genius suggested he had.

Highly recommended with not one whit of any reservation.--Amazon


Track listing
01. Sonata K32 in D Minor: Sonata K32 in D Minor 1:26
02. Sonata K164 in D: Sonata K164 in D 2:56
03. Sonata K484 in D: Sonata K484 in D 1:17
04. Sonata K318 in F#: Sonata K318 in F# 1:53
05. Sonata K500 in A: Sonata K500 in A 2:00
06. Sonata K474 in E Flat: Sonata K474 in E Flat 2:48
07. Sonata K550 in B Flat: Sonata K550 in B Flat 2:27
08. Sonata K208 in A: Sonata K208 in A 1:54
09. Sonata K107 in F: Sonata K107 in F 2:14
10. Sonata K380 in E: Sonata K380 in E 2:33
11. Sonata K531 in E: Sonata K531 in E 1:31
12. Sonata K210 in G: Sonata K210 in G 2:39
13. Sonata K461 in C: Sonata K461 in C 1:34
14. Sonata K304 in G: Sonata K304 in G 1:39
15. Sonata K99 in C Minor: Sonata K99 in C Minor 3:14
16. Sonata K540 in F: Sonata K540 in F 2:00
17. Sonata K162 in E: Sonata K162 in E 3:04
18. Sonata K163 in E: Sonata K163 in E 0:52
19. Sonata K246 in C# Minor: Sonata K246 in C# Minor 2:06
20. Sonata K247 in C# Minor: Sonata K247 in C# Minor 2:33
21. Sonata K378 in F: Sonata K378 in F 1:32
22. Sonata K379 in F: Sonata K379 in F 1:38
23. Sonata K213 in D Minor: Sonata K213 in D Minor 3:29
24. Sonata K443 in D: Sonata K443 in D 2:39
25. Sonata K262 in B: Sonata K262 in B 2:17
26. Sonata K215 in E: Sonata K215 in E 2:36
27. Sonata K158 in C Minor: Sonata K158 in C Minor 3:09
28. Sonata K193 in E Flat: Sonata K193 in E Flat 2:11
29. Sonata K481 in F Minor: Sonata K481 in F Minor 3:08
30. Sonata K513 in C: Sonata K513 in C 2:42
31. Sonata K394 in E Minor: Sonata K394 in E Minor 3:04
32. Sonata K95 in C: Sonata K95 in C 2:07