Scarlatti: Complete Keyboard Sonatas, Vol. 10 (2008)

Colleen Lee Plays Scarlatti

The 555 keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti (1685 -- 1757)are an inexhaustible delight, whether played on the harpsichord or on the piano. The budget-priced Naxos label is in the midst of recording the complete Scarlatti sonatas on the piano with each volume performed by a different pianist. This series offers an outstanding opportunity to explore Scarlatti's sonatas in depth, rather than to hear the handful of works that generally appear in recitals consisting of a single CD. The series also offers the opportunity to hear talented young pianists and to explore different ways of performing Scarlatti.

The virtues of the Naxos project are all on display in this, the tenth volume of the series, performed by Hong Kong pianist Colleen Lee. Lee (b. 1980) was a finalist in the 2005 International Frederick Chopin competition and she has concertized widely in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Her first recording was a CD of Chopin, and Lee is obviously comfortable with a romantic style of playing. She brings a romantic touch to her Scarlatti performances, with substantial use of the pedal, a great deal of legato, rhythmic flexibility, and a willingness in places to embellish the scores. She offers a lovely recital on this, her second CD.

One of the joys of Scarlatti is that there is always something new to hear. Many of the fourteen sonatas on this CD will likely be unfamiliar to listeners without an in-depth knowledge of the composer. The 14 sonatas have the strong Spanish flavor, insistent rhythm, wide intervallic skips, sudden harmonic moves, and hand-crossings characteristic of the composer. But each piece offers something new. All but two of the works on this CD are relatively early, by which I mean they have a numbering of under 400 in the Kirkpatrick ordering of the sonatas.

Most of Scarlatti's sonatas are in a binary form -- consisting of two sections each of which is repeated. Before hearing this CD, I was unaware that some of the sonatas are not binary. The sonatas in E minor, K. 81 and D. Minor, K. 90, are in a four movement form, with odd numbered slow movements and even numbered fast movements. Both works also include a thorough-bass line. It was a delight to get to know these unusual works on this CD.

A sonata with which I was familiar was K. 95 in C major, which I played when I was young. This is a little work with a left-hand triplet accompaniment, and a rapid, lilting and ornamented theme which requires the right hand to make large crossings over the keyboard. This work is not often performed, and I was pleased to hear it again. Another relatively familiar work is the D minor sonata, K. 18, a lively piece with long runs, offbeat notes, and extensive passages in thirds up and down the keyboard.

Other works I enjoyed that I hadn't heard before include the opening sonata in D major, K. 29, with its curlicue scale passage at the opening and subsequent bravura elements. The sonata in D minor, D. 41, is, for Scarlatti, a surprisingly contrapuntal work. It is a slow, meditative fugue, of a type that I would associate more with Bach. But it remains a work in which Scarlatti remains his own composer. The sonata in B minor, K. 408, is a relatively late work with a light yet melancholy touch and additional use of counterpoint and echoes between the hands. And the final work on this CD, the sonata in F minor, K 555, is, in the Kirkpatrick catalog, the last of the sonatas. It opens with a stacatto and pointed descending theme which soon becomes contrasted with a lyrically haunting answer. This piece is a worthy conclusion to the cycle, and I had not known it before.

Listeners wanting to broaden their knowledge of this enigmatic keyboard composer will enjoy Colleen Lee's recital of Scarlatti together with its companions in the ongoing Naxos series.

Robin Friedman