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Sonia Rubinsky's Suave Scarlatti · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:05
  This is Jed Distler, and welcome to The Piano
• 0:09
  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  You can subscribe to The Piano Maven through
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  my Substack page, and I've included a link to
• 0:18
  that in my episode description. Paid subscribers
• 0:22
  get free downloads at the start of each month,
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  and we'll be scheduling some more Zoom meetings
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  for the summer. So do consider a paid subscription
• 0:31
  to keep this podcast in production. One bit of
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  housekeeping I want to bring up. Several listeners
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  asked if I could include sound samples in my
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  podcast episodes. Originally, I was reluctant
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  to do so because of copyright. problems or potential
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  copyright infringement issues. But I decided
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  that I would put a few very, very brief sound
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  samples in my recent Mendelssohn Songs Without
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  Words episode. But what happened was when I pressed
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  the button on my RSS hosting platform that sends
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  episodes to YouTube, YouTube would not accept
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  that episode. So then I tried to upload the episode
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  directly onto YouTube. And I was able to do that.
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  But what happened was, I got a notice saying
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  that YouTube was aware that I was using copyrighted
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  material. And that could potentially be a problem,
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  even though I just used a matter of seconds from
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  several recordings. So I thought, you know, just
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  bag it. I'm going to delete the episode from
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  YouTube, which I did. And then I re -edited the
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  Mendelssohn episode so that it would not have
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  any music this time. And then YouTube accepted
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  it without any problem. So... At this moment,
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  unfortunately, sound samples are not going to
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  be an option. But you know that I always include
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  links to hear or to stream or to download or
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  to purchase the recordings I'm talking about.
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  And you can find these links in my episode description.
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  And this way you can explore the recordings that
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  I mention as you see fit on your own time and
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  whenever you'd like. So on to this week's topic.
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  Back in our first season, I presented an episode
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  where I discussed a whole bunch of Scarlatti
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  recitals by various pianists. And I thought maybe
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  I could do some episodes where I would discuss
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  one particular Scarlatti release on each episode.
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  So here's one Scarlatti disc that... probably
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  has not crossed your Scarlatti radar, or maybe
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  you have heard it. But this is a disc I hadn't
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  thought about in a while. But I recently took
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  it down from my shelf, and I listened again,
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  and I really enjoyed it. It's a Scarlatti recital
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  by the Brazilian pianist Sonia Rubinsky. It originally
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  came out on the Algol Editora label with a catalog
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  number. AA0002000, if you want that information.
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  It came out in 2006. But 10 years later, it was
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  picked up by Arabesque, and you can easily find
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  the Arabesque release as a digital download or
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  through streaming platforms. It's a beautifully
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  recorded disc. The sonics are warm and resonant.
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  And Sonia Rubinsky, as a Scarlatti player, is
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  very suave, and her tone is gorgeously rounded.
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  Her dynamics are not extreme, but... Within her
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  dynamic sphere, there are so many levels of shading
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  and nuance. There are 16 sonatas on this disc.
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  She plays that famous E major Kirkpatrick number
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  80, you know, do -do -do -do, boom, boom, boom,
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  boom. Forgive my singing. This is one that Dinu
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  Lopati recorded, and Vladimir Horowitz recorded
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  this on several occasions. And Sonia Rubinsky
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  has marvelous articulation, and her trills are
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  as smooth as Chivas Regal. And the F minor Kirkpatrick
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  No. 69 sonata is really beautifully played. It
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  has lyrical, introspective lines that are seamlessly
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  illuminated, yet the phrases just move beautifully
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  over the bar lines. And you can say the same
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  about that famous B minor. Kirkpatrick No. 87
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  Sonata. That was another Horowitz specialty.
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  And Sonia Rubinsky just brings such subtle voicing
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  to this piece. And another piece that one associates
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  with Horowitz, the F minor Kirkpatrick No. 481,
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  has a real crystal -like delicacy in Sonia Rubinsky's
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  hands. almost afraid that the crystal's going
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  to break, but it doesn't. And she takes the C
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  major sonata, Kirkpatrick No. 513, at a very
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  measured yet quite lilting tempo, while the other
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  C major sonata, the Kirkpatrick No. 225 she plays,
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  gets a crisp but gentle reading. Let's say that
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  it's comfortably up -tempo. Now, you don't get
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  the bustling, red -blooded, hot -tempered, and
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  edgy Scarlatti that you hear from other pianists.
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  But when Sonia Rubinsky seduces you with her
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  tone and makes such a compelling case for her
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  intimately scaled Scarlatti interpretations on
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  such a world -class level, there really isn't
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  any reason to complain. So, in short, this is
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  quite an enchanting disc, and I enjoyed reacquainting
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  myself with it. Sonia Rubinsky playing 16 Scarlatti
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  sonatas, available from Arabesque. This is Jed
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  Disler, and you've been listening to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  I look forward to being with you next time.