Alexis Weissenberg plays Scarlatti

[Belle]

I've just been alerted to this wonderful pianist's Scarlatti sonatas. Does anybody else have these works performed by Weissenberg? Apparently Robert Levin recommended them in a recent comment.

[Lance]

Yes, I have them, love 'em. I happen to very much like the pianist though he was somewhat controversial in some circles. His EMI/Warner Icon boxed set is very worthy of consideration. DGG issued his complete recordings on 4 CDs (including the Scarlatti), and RCA also issued all of Weissenberg's discs in a 7 CD boxed set (including his first recordings for Columbia Records).

[Holden Fourth]

I love Scarlatti who I think was well ahead of his time so I have recordings by many pianists (though nothing on harpsichord). Top interpretations for me include Sergei Babayan, Dubravka Tomsic, Mordecai Shehori, Yevgeny Sudbin, Gilels and of course Horowitz. Weissenberg is 2nd tier for me.

[John F]

I've heard some of Weissenberg's Scarlatti but not recently and I don't have the recording(s). Weissenberg was an emulator of Horowitz, whether consciously or not I don't know, and that extended to his repertoire from Scarlatti to Rachmaninoff 3. Horowitz's Scarlatti is marvelously colorful; my aural image of Weissenberg is rather monochromatic and straitlaced though of course brilliantly played.

[maestrob]

I've heard some of Weissenberg's Scarlatti but not recently and I don't have the recording(s). Weissenberg was an emulator of Horowitz, whether consciously or not I don't know, and that extended to his repertoire from Scarlatti to Rachmaninoff 3. Horowitz's Scarlatti is marvelously colorful; my aural image of Weissenberg is rather monochromatic and straitlaced though of course brilliantly played.

That's about right, John, but I think the three sets Lance mentioned are well worth having.

[jbuck919]

Yes, well, I should be able give them performances so " monochromatic and straitlaced." (With practice--a lot of it--Scarlatti is one of the few keyboard players I could play more or less to my own satisfaction. His work is often virtuoso, but it does not require a transcendental technique.)

There are a number of sonatas on YouTube. One (not the group that follows) was uploaded by someone called Beckmesser 2. Any connection with our Beckmesser?

[John F]

Incidentally, Scarlatti's sonatas have been the property of virtuoso pianists for a very long time. Carl Tausig (1841-1871) arranged two of them as the Pastorale and Capriccio, and Josef Hofmann recorded them for Brunswick in 1923 in an entirely pianistic style. I love it!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yLi7gr5yqw

[Belle]

Incidentally, in the Jorge Bolet "desert island discs" program he speaks about his veneration for two pianists above all - Hofmann and Rachmaninov.