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Carlo Grante's Monumental Scarlatti Cycle · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Disler and welcome to The Piano Maven,
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  your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  Please consider taking out a subscription to
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  The Piano Maven podcast and you can find a link
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  to do so in our episode description. You go to
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  our Substack page and paid subscribers get free
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  downloads at the beginning of each month. About
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  12 years ago or so, I met the pianist Carlo Grande
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  for the first time in person when I was visiting
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  Rome. And although I had heard him several times
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  in concert in New York many years earlier, we
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  actually had not met until then in Rome, and
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  he had helped me find a place to practice at
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  the Yamaha showroom, and I'm very grateful for
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  that. I always admired Carlo Granta's prolific
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  output of recordings, from works of Clementi
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  and Liszt and Busoni, to his extensive Leopold
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  Godowski series for the music and arts label.
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  Carlo Granta is an extraordinary scholar and
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  intellect, as well as a pianist, of course. Around
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  five years ago, he completed a very ambitious
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  project, which was to record all of Scarlatti's
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  keyboard sonatas on the modern concert grand.
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  I'm talking about Domenico Scarlatti, of course.
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  Now, there had... been the very first complete
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  Scarlatti Sonata edition, which was done on the
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  harpsichord, and that featured the late great
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  harpsichordist Scott Ross. And that cycle remains
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  a kind of point of reference. And there were
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  further complete Scarlatti editions on the harpsichord
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  from Pieter Jan Belder on Brilliant Classics.
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  and also a complete edition of Scarlatti from
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  Richard Lester on Nimbus. But there was not a
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  complete piano edition of the Scarlatti sonatas
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  on CD until Carlo Grante came along. Actually,
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  he got a false start on such a project in the
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  late 1990s when he embarked on what was planned
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  to be a complete Scarlatti sonata for the Dante
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  label. 120 sonatas, I believe, were released
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  across seven CDs. I think it was three volumes
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  of like two discs or three discs in each volume.
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  I don't have the physical discs here in front
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  of me. But the project was curtailed because
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  the label folded, and so it was left incomplete.
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  But in 2009, Carlo Grande began completely from
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  scratch. on a Scarlatti cycle, and this time
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  it was for the Music and Arts label. And when
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  I reviewed the first of these volumes in Gramophone
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  magazine, I expressed my hopes that Carlo Grande
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  and Music and Arts would see this project through
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  to completion. And it actually took nine years
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  to do so from that first volume's appearance.
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  But... By 2020, the whole cycle had been finished
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  and released, totaling six multi -disc volumes
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  with a total of 34 CDs in all. And as Carlo Grande's
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  extensive and very thorough annotations for this
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  project pointed out, the actual number of Scarlatti
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  sonatas that exist far exceeds the 555 items
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  identified in Ralph Kirkpatrick's standard setting
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  catalog. Carlo Grante organized his cycle sequentially
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  according to manuscript collections largely identified
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  by the city libraries in which they can be found.
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  I'll break these down for you, even though this
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  may be more of historical than musical interest.
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  The great majority of sonatas are sourced from
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  15 volumes in Parma, followed by 13 volumes housed
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  in Venice, and two volumes located in Venice's
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  Marciana. Miscellaneous sources provide the remaining
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  works. And in cases of duplications between sources,
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  Carlo Grante gives Parma the priority in his
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  numbering of the sonatas and the booklets. However,
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  to facilitate identification, Grante also includes
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  the Kirkpatrick numbers in his table of contents.
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  So, for example, when you see a listing that
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  reads P, as in Peter, 15 -10, with K523 in parentheses.
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  This refers to the 10th sonata in the 15th Parma
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  volume and its corresponding position in the
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  Kirkpatrick catalog. I hope that's all clear
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  to you. But more importantly, Carlo Grante's
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  annotations offer musically and historically
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  detailed descriptions of the sonatas, and he
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  cites earlier Scarlatti scholars when it's appropriate
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  to do so, and he addresses all matters of style
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  and genre and mood and interpretation. But most
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  importantly, Carlo Grante is equally articulate
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  at the piano as he is at the typewriter or at
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  the computer or however he writes. When I reviewed
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  one of the earlier volumes for Gramophone, I
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  think it was either the first one or maybe there
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  was another one, I had wondered if Grante's use
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  of a vintage Bösendorfer concert grand from the
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  collection of Eva and Paul Badour Skoda partially
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  informed the wide range of agogic stresses and
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  articulations and embellishments in his interpretations,
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  as well as the very noticeable textural diversity
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  and the sense of registral differentiation that
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  one hears from this instrument. But that said,
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  you know, no instrument can play itself. And
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  you really have to give Carlo Grande's pianism
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  and his superb ear its total due. And he has
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  that ability to imbue each and every sonata with
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  a character all its own. And he always channels
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  his sophisticated and painstakingly detailed
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  finger work toward musical ends. Take two sonatas,
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  for example. These are two sonatas in C major.
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  The Kirkpatrick number 514 and 515. I'm not going
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  to get into the Parma numbers because life is
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  too short. And everybody knows the Kirkpatrick
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  numbers, I think. And you listen to these sonatas,
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  and then you'll notice the sense of timing, the
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  sense of air in between the notes, and the very
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  pinpointed kind of articulation that Carlo Grande
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  has in his arsenal. And here's another example.
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  Many pianists treat the F minor sonata, the one
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  with the Kirkpatrick number 519, like a bouncy
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  etude, but... Carlo Grande takes a slower tempo
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  that anchors the repeated note accompaniments
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  and allows the counterpoint room to really register
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  and, again, to breathe that sense of air in between
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  the notes that I mentioned before. And then every
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  linear entrance and another sonata, the F major.
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  Kirkpatrick 525, every linear entrance seems
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  to take on a color of its own. And also the way
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  that Carlo Grande uses color to underline those
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  unpredictable harmonic surprises in the B -flat
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  major sonata. Kirkpatrick number 544. And if
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  you listen to how he rolls the Kirkpatrick number
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  534's chords, it's almost like he's strumming
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  a lute. And then when you listen to the C major
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  sonata, Kirkpatrick number 549's. imitative passages.
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  There's such consistency in how Carlo Grande
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  shapes each phrase, the way that the line rises
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  and fall with both hands. It's really, really
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  well thought out and beautifully played. And
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  then also there's that fugue, the C minor fugue,
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  Kirkpatrick number 58. and his dynamic gradations
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  are so painstakingly yet very naturally calibrated.
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  And take the A minor sonata, Kirkpatrick No.
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  36, which Carlo Grande takes faster than many
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  people usually take it. And by doing so, he gives
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  the music a kind of angular, almost abrasive
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  intensity that makes most other performances
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  sound relatively uneventful. But then his muted
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  deliberation and predominant legato in the F
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  sharp minor sonata with a Kirkpatrick number
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  67 conveys a totally different complexion heard
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  alongside the much more upbeat performances of
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  Evgeny Zarafianz on Noxus, just to give one example,
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  or on the Tacit label, Christoph Ullrich. And
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  Christoph Ullrich, by the way, is also in the
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  middle of recording the complete Scarlatti sonatas
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  on the piano, and he's almost done with that
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  cycle. Now, Carlo Grande may not match Vladimir
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  Horowitz for vehemence in the D major, Kirkpatrick
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  No. 33. but it doesn't lack anything in heel
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  -clicking rhythmic verve, I would say. And if
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  there is a more heartfelt and eloquently spun
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  -out reading of what must be the slowest and
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  easiest of all the Scarlatti sonatas, and this
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  is the one -page D minor sonata, Kirkpatrick
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  number 32, if there's a more eloquent and beautiful
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  version of this, I... Don't think I've heard
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  it. I'm sure there are a few out there, but this
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  one is really quite special. Now, obviously,
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  piano mavens are not going to want to displace
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  their favorite Scarlatti performances or mixed
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  recitals, but... I think that Carlo Grande's
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  comprehensive scope and his consistently high
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  level of accomplishment throughout this entire
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  cycle deserve nothing but praise and admiration.
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  Now, I don't know if music and arts ever bundled
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  the Carlo Grande -Scarlotti cycle into one single
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  big box, but... You can access the six multi
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  -disc volumes in physical and download formats,
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  and also through all streaming platforms, at
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  least most of them that I'm aware of. This is
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  Jed Disler, and you've been listening to The
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  Piano Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano
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  recordings. Thank you for tuning in, and I look
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  forward to being with you for the next episode.