29/10/2024
Alle recensioni di dischi e concerti sono abituato ormai da una vita. Ma a quelle de'miei scritti assolutamente no! Allora qui ci vuole un grande GRAZIE a Luca Segalla, che dalle colonne del numero di novembre della rivista MUSICA parla del mio Scarlattino con una gentilezza fuori dal comune. Ne sono, ovviamente, molto lieto! / I have been used to reviews of CDs and concerts for a lifetime, but not to those of my writings. Thus, I owe a huge THANK YOU to Luca Segalla, who penned an extremely kind review of my Scarlattino from the columns of MUSICA. For my faraway friends, here is a (rough) English translation:
Sandro Ivo Bartoli, Domenico Scarlatti. "Live Happily". The life and works of Scarlattino, Knight of St. James, Zecchini Publishing, Varese, 2024, 389 pp.
A Tuscan from Vecchiano who lived in London for many years, where he studied with piano legend Shura Cherkassky, pianist Sandro Ivo Bartoli dedicates to Domenico Scarlatti's 555 Sonatas a volume penned with the creative flair of an adventurous interpreter - he is a lover of fine cuisine and literature whose repertoire spans from Frescobaldi to the XXth Century passing through Liszt and Busoni - and with the passion of a pianist who is totally in love with his hero.
Love is indeed the case here, as evidenced by the character of the book which, without being a study, easily surpasses the boudaries of a simple divulgational exercise with its rich documentation and the punctuality of its historic and musicological analysis.
Bartoli's love for Scarlatti comes from afar, but it was during the pandemic that it became all-encompassing when the Tuscan pianist video recorded all the 555 Sonatas, one a day, making them available on YouTube. The book stems from that experience, and reads with the agility and sapidity of a spoken narration. In the beginning Bartoli traces with quick strokes of the pen the opulence of Naples in the late XVIIth century: a city imbued in music, where on October 26th 1685 Domenico Scarlatti came into this world. For his education, his father Alessandro (who was an illustrios opera composer) wrote the 30 Toccatas, and for his career interceded with Princes and Prelates. At 15 Domenico was already a mature musician, at 28 he became Chapelmaster at the Vatican, and in November 1719 he landed at the Portuguese Court in Lisbon.
Bartoli moves with confidence through the sketchy biography of Scarlatti, amidst few undisputable facts and many conjectures, making sure that even the non specialist reader can follow him every step of the way. He also tackles technical issues, such as the instrumental destination of the Sonatas; initially considered pure harpsichord music since Ralph Kirkpatrick's pioneering study from the 1950s, they were perhaps also intended for the piano once we consider that in Maria Barbara's royal residencies there were harpsichords and pianos.
The last third of the volume is devoted to the description of the 555 Sonatas, one by one: these are extremely enjoyable accounts, a kind of guide in which the lightness of divulgation goes hand in hand with the musicological competence of the author.
Luca Segalla
