Volume 25 Issue 4 - December 2019 / January 2020

Op.34, both from 1823. Eric Lamb is the flutist in the 1815 Trio for
Flute, Cello and Piano in E-flat Major Op.63.
Violinist Emmanuele Baldini and pianist Karin Fernandes perform
sonatas by two leading figures in Brazilian classical music at the turn
of the last century on Miguez and Velásquez Sonatas in the Naxos
Music of Brazil series (8.574118 naxos.com/).
The Sonata No.1 for Violin and Piano, “Delirio” from 1909 and the
Sonata No.2 for Violin and Piano from 1911 by Glauco Velásquez, who
was only 30 when he died in 1914, are really attractive works with a
warm Latin feel. The Sonata for Violin and
Piano Op.14 by Leopoldo Miguez (1850-
1902) is from 1885, and while it feels structurally
stronger than the Velásquez works
and more in the standard 19th-century
sonata mode, it also has less of a Latin feel.
Baldini’s playing is radiant and idiomatic,
with Fernandes particularly brilliant
in the demanding piano writing in the
Miguez sonata.
Keyed In
Scarlatti – 52 Sonatas
Lucas Debargue
Sony Classical 19075944462 (lucasdebargue.com)
!!
When the jury at the 2015 International
Tchaikovsky Competition placed French
pianist Lucas Debargue fourth (which was
actually sixth, since the second and third
prizes were each shared by two contestants),
the outrage was predictable. For it was
Debargue who had won over the audience
– and the critics – with his dazzling mix of
brilliant technique and poetic sensibility.
In any case, Debargue’s career has flourished.
In January he’ll make his third appearance at Koerner Hall in
Toronto. And Sony has just released his fifth recording, a four-disc
set of sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, the innovative Italian Baroque
composer who was born in 1685 – the very same year as Bach and
Handel – and spent his later, most productive, years at the royal courts
in Portugal and Spain.
These short works are fundamental to the repertoire of harpsichordists.
Though heard less often in piano recitals, they have been championed
by pianists from Vladimir Horowitz and Alicia de Laroccha to
András Schiff, Glenn Gould and Angela Hewitt. Many last just three or
four minutes, even with Scarlatti’s repeats. But they have the impact
of much grander works. Debargue’s selection of 52 sonatas represents
less than a tenth of the 555 that Scarlatti wrote. But that’s four hours
of some of the most glorious keyboard music ever written.
What we're listening to this month:
Scarlatti, a virtuoso harpsichordist, wrote these sonatas to play
on his own instrument. So Debargue, ever mindful of the perils of
playing them on a piano, makes minimal use of one of the piano’s
most valued assets, the sustaining pedal. As a result, he is able to
weave textures of delectable lightness and harpsichord-like clarity. But
right from the first – and longest – work here, K206, Debargue makes
full use of other resources offered by the piano to create an orchestrascale
range of colours and a variety of textures not possible on the
earlier instrument. In K115 he highlights Scarlatti’s alluring harmonic
shifts by shaping the broken chords and chromatic scales with
dramatic crescendos and diminuendos. He does rush the tempo at
times, though there are definite payoffs. K25, which is marked allegro,
becomes more dramatic at his presto tempo, with the exquisite
melodic lines emerging magically. I especially enjoy his bold use of
rubato throughout. His ornaments are gorgeous, especially in episodic
works like K268, though they can disrupt the pulse and prevent the
Iberian rhythms from dancing.
The way Debargue combines the clarity of the harpsichord with
the expressive power of the piano is fresh, imaginative and invariably
enjoyable – a thoroughly modern approach to these exquisite works.
Pamela Margles
Concert Note: Show One presents Lucas Debargue at Koerner Hall on
January 16 in a recital which will include sonatas by Scarlatti.
Bach – The Well-Tempered Clavier I & II
Heidrun Holtmann
Musicaphon M56922 (cantate-musicaphon.de)
!!
The Well-Tempered Clavier compositions have always represented
a sanctuary of sorts for me; a sonic space for contemplation and stillness,
unaffected by the fast pace of modern living, and a doorway
to a singular notion of the reciprocity between the laws of music
and the cosmos. A collection of two sets of preludes and fugues in
24 major and minor keys for solo keyboard, it is also a wonderfully
thewholenote.com/listening
Mosaic
Kira Braun, Kirk Starkey,
Linda Ippolito
André Previn's Four Songs &
Vocalise are intimately brought to
life by soprano Kira Braun, along
with Kirk Starkey, cello, and Linda
Ippolito, piano.
Mirrored Spaces
Daniel Lippel
Guitarist Daniel Lippel releases
Mirrored Spaces, an eclectic
double album of premieres for solo
classical and electric guitar, some
with electronics.
Her Voice
Neave Trio
Neave Trio’s Her Voice honors
three distinguished women
composers and features a wide
range of voices - Louise Farrenc,
Amy Beach, Rebecca Clarke.
Mozart: Sonatas K 283,
K 282, K 280, K 517
David Fung
David Fung makes his Steinway
label debut with four Mozart
sonatas: three early and one late,
demonstrating sensitive and lyrical
interpretations of Mozart's music.
thewholenote.com December 2019 – January 2020 | 83