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Notes
With his more than sixty prizewinning recordings, Michael Korstick has gained renown as one of Germany’s leading pianists. And now, with his new recording of sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, he again sets accents and interpretive standards. The score texts, especially as far as ornamentation is concerned, often cannot be written out with precision or brought into systematic agreement in parallel passages. Much in these score texts creates the impression of a sketch and practically invites the player to make individual decisions. An improvisational element is proper to all the pieces; no sonata follows a predictable course apart from the fact that they as a rule consist of two parts, each of which is repeated. There are many characteristics in Scarlatti’s music that immediately catch the ear’s attention: wit, generosity, keen understanding, irony, sensibility, and not least a healthy portion of the self-confidence forming a super-virtuoso’s sine qua non. The combination of the most sophisticated techniques, some of them acrobatic, with extremely catchy thematic material is characteristic of Scarlatti’s sonatas, but what never fails to astonish us is also his capacity for lyrical introspection in its most various manifestations, from the greatest sorrow through the profoundest mourning to meditative absorption. Again, other pieces imitate the sounds of instruments so very different as flutes, oboes, trumpets, horns, guitars, mandolins, castanets, and drums. This recording presents in full the thirty-two sonatas of the Auswahlband IV of the G. Henle Verlag as well as four of Scarlatti’s most beloved sonatas, which have been published separately by the G. Henle Verlag. The selection of pieces for Band IV has at its goal the presentation of what may be described as the essence or “The Best of” Scarlatti’s art of invention.
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Reviews
Nominee in the Baroque Instrumental category
2023 ICMA Nominee
2022 Opus Klassik Awards Nominee
Opus Klassik Awards 2022
Coup de cœur
Alain Lompech – Classica magazine (France) – June 2022
“… On this double CD, Michael Korstick offers 37 piano sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, 32 of which are taken from a publication compiled by Henle-Musikverlag as a 'Best of Scarlatti' collection of the 555 surviving Scarlatti sonatas. They have been combined into this program with an alternative version and four particularly popular sonatas. Thus, these two CDs want to provide an overview of Domenico Scarlatti's piano work, presenting his entire oeuvre in a nutshell as a short piano biography in all its shades, from virtuoso fireworks to a deeply felt genre picture. Korstick shows himself here as a master pianist …”
Detmar Huchting – klassik-heute.de – 9 January 2022
Recommended
“… Michael Korstick’s Scarlatti is recommendable at every level. Beautifully recorded with excellent but not too dry clarity, the piano sound is perfect for these sonatas, and all of Korstick’s life-enhancing performances are reason enough to discover or rediscover each and every piece…”
Dominy Clements – MusicWeb-International.com – 7 March 2022
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