Domenico
Scarlatti's canon of 555 keyboard sonatas is one of the great collections
of classical music, and one that we have already visited with the Scarlatti
Society recordings of the 1930's by Wanda Landowska (PAKM004).
In
1951 Fernando Valenti and the Westminster Recording Company of New York
began work on an ambitious project, to record the entire set for the newly
emergent long-playing record. Although the project ultimately ran to about
two dozen records, alas it was never completed, with only about half of
the sonatas making it onto LP.
The
first eleven of these LPs are being lovingly remastered from the original
vinyl by Peter Harrison at disk2disc as a monthly series for Pristine
Audio Direct, running from January to November, 2006.
Here
we present volume eight, as originally released though with the newer
Kirkpatrick numbering system also noted - Ralph Kirkpatrick had earlier
encouraged Valenti to study the harpsichord, but at the time of this recording
had yet to finish his complete listing of Domenico Scarlatti's music,
which was to come with his critical edition of 1953.
Of
Valenti, his obituary
in National Review noted: ""Valenti was to Scarlatti as Artur
Schnabel was to Beethoven. Just as Schnabel was this century's greatest
interpreter of Beethoven, so Valenti was our time's definitive exponent
of Scarlatti." So said Thomas Wendel, professor of history, San Jose
State. And Tom Wendel went on to say, on hearing that Fernando Valenti
had died in a taxicab en route from Kennedy Airport to his sister's house
in New Jersey, "Valenti's personality mirrored Scarlatti's music:
humorous, versatile, mercurial, jocular; and at base, profound.""
Valenti
had achieved a number of 'firsts' by the time of this recording (made
when still in his twenties) - the first harpsichordist to have recorded
a film soundtrack, the first to have appeared on television and the first
to appear in a Broadway show. Many critics feel that these first mono
recordings for Westminster in the early 1950's are perhaps the best of
his career, particularly the best of his Scarlatti.
REVIEW
OF SCARLATTI: Sonatas
(Fernando Valenti, rec. 1951-)
One
cold Sunday afternoon in December, 1966, in St. Louis, Missouri
, my wife and I went to a recital by Fernando Valenti of baroque
harsichord music. I was a fan of Valenti, because his electrifying
performances of the Scarlatti sonatas issued on Westminster
in the early 1950's convinced me that Scarlatti was a great
composer and not just an exceedingly productive but repetitious
tinkler. We went to pay our respects to Valenti at the intermission
and found him in his dressing room alone, sweating and rather
agitated. After congratulating him, I asked him if there was
anything I could do for him. He said that he was starving
and would give anything for a quick sandwich. We ran across
the street to a deli and got him a big corned beef sandwich
and a root beer. He started gobbling the sandwich and we left
him to eat in peace.
Hearing
these performance again made me realize why I was so taken
with him in college more than 50 years ago. While there are
many great Scarlatti harpsichordists and pianists such as
Landowska, Ralph Kirkpatrick, Horowitz, Michelangeli and Pletnyev,
they all give us Scarlatti through the veil of baroque constraints.
Valenti seems to rip that veil away and make it seem that
he is improvising the music with no limits to the passion
or expression. The repetitions seem to strengthen the power
of the music.
Some
of the powerful impression of this recording must be laid
at the steps of its magnificent reprocessing. The somewhat
shrill 1950's sound has been silvered. The blasting bass has
been tamed. What is left is dynamically very wide yet exceedingly
mellow. Most importantly, the sonatas speak and grab hold
and compel more than just aesthetic appreciation.
