Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Members Recordings - Pianist Corner Scarlatti Sonata in B minor K.87/L.33

So lookit, I try hard to make this different from the great Horowitz performance, but some of his performing DNA inevitably infects me every time I sit down to play this piece. This is my first attempt at what I think is one of the most challenging of Scarlatti's sonatas. It's like a Frescobaldi Ricercar on Valium, with all the contrapuntal complexity and a million times the expressive power but without the affectation. Anyway, comments welcome, as always. I could play this piece in Heaven for eternity.

Thanks for sharing this gem! I've read through it many times and so thought that I "knew" it, but your performance is so compelling as to be a revelation to me.

Lovely performance. Thanks so much for sharing.

It's a beautiful sonata. The first time I heard it, it was a Clara Haskil performance and I thought she was playing a piece by Franck!

https://youtu.be/DNiNgL7yoZY

Well played and very enjoyable!

Thank you Steve. And thanks for the Clara Haskil link. What exquisite playing! It’s made me rethink my tempo choice a bit; I’ll try playing it a bit faster, see if that works for me. Oh and yes, I get what you’re saying about Franck!

You can almost make a case that Scarlatti was the first romantic!

One of my favorite Franck performances. Above my skill level, but I bet you can pull it off nicely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h6lzXjA3Ow

I enjoyed your performance but it sounded a bit too literal to me, if that makes any sense. I think your tempo is fine and that Clara Haskil’s tempo sounds too hurried. I have worked on this piece on and off for about 3 years and agree with you that there is more depth in this piece to explore than meets the eye.

I like Spencer Meyer’s interpretation and would be interested in your opinion of his performance. BTW you are way more accomplished pianist than I am, so you can take my comment within that context.

Thank you so much for the comments. Yes, the recording was too literal. I could say so much on this subject, but maybe it’s enough to respond that when I was practicing the piece yesterday, I kept stopping not because I had played a wrong note but because I had played a note wrong. Big difference. I’m sure you understand what I’m saying.

I listened to Meyer’s performance and really liked it. Long lines and impeccable voicing. Definitely something to emulate.

I suspect that this was a piece that Scarlatti would have played on an organ.

Thank you! I read it through many times myself before realizing that I needed to actually learn it because it is truly great music.

One of those pieces that's just so enjoyable to play you never want to stop. The challenge is to convince an audience that it's equally enjoyable to listen to, which for me is going to involve more work. But thank you for the compliment!

Lovely performance! Thanks for posting it.

Gonna post another recording soon. It will blow y'all away!

Nice playing! And it's nothing wrong with taking inspiration from your idols.

I think it's a bit rushed, especially with all the polyphony. Not necessarily in a metronimic sense, but that all the voices need the time to resolve.. which you don't really give them.

I would practice this by, first, playing all voices separately and musically independent from each other.
Then I would play them in as many inversions as possible, like the bass voice as soprano, and mixing the middle voices. That gives you a completely different view on how they sound, since they are played in different registers. When you then play all of them together, I think you will notice the lack of time.

But that's just my view!

Good job nonetheless!

Hi SiFi, It is well played. I will send you my detailled observations via PM. It is simplier and easier to discuss. Cheers.