282 CD / Scarlatti: Complete piano sonatas Vol. 12
Description
Who would have thought at the beginning of the great Scarlatti adventure 15 years ago that there would be no CD at the end? The four of us, who sail the two-voiced oceans of the world in the Scarlatti boat, certainly not: Captain Christoph Ullrich at the steering wheel (keyboard), Gerd Finkenstein in the engine room (grand piano), me as radio operator (recording), and Thomas Seedorf (scientific support and texts) in the crow's nest. All old white men with weathered faces… Well, the CD is still alive. But the project needs another two years... We're going to see it through! Who knows, maybe it will be the last serious big complete edition ever produced for this medium? Then, among many other things, it will also be a tribute to the days when you could still hold what you loved in your hands.
Our current position: Domenico Scarlatti wrote 555 piano sonatas. This is volume 12 of 17. Volumes 14 and 15 are already available, a total of 12 double and 2 triple CDs so far. Volumes 13 (already recorded, not yet released), 16 (30 sonatas), and 17 (12 sonatas) are still missing. This means that 513 of the 555 sonatas have been recorded and 477 released. There are still 42 left to go to the home port. We are getting closer to our goal!
There are so many interesting, admirable, and thought-provoking aspects to this opus! It would fill books. But we'll save that for the end.
Turn these 30 new sonatas into an Advent calendar! Or a January calendar. Every day is unique; every day deserves a different sonata by Domenico Scarlatti!
Did you see this story in German AUDIO magazine?
AUDIO+stereoplay 09/2025: Abenteuer Scarlatti
Further information about the Scarlatti Project.
Christoph Ullrich on Youtube: Sonata in g moll K 8, Allegro and Sonata in C major, K 487, Allegro
2 reviews for 282 CD / Scarlatti: Complete piano sonatas Vol. 12
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Klassik heute –
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In his endeavor to record all 555 surviving harpsichord sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757) on a modern Steinway concert grand piano, Christoph Ullrich has reached Kirkpatrick number 417 with Album No. 12. As with his previous recordings, he resolves the challenge of presenting early music in a modern guise with an elegant compromise: he performs the pieces with a light, buoyant touch, avoiding any attempt to overly modernize Scarlatti’s music.
Early Music on a Modern Instrument
This means he utilizes the possibilities of the modern instrument with restraint. Dynamics remain mostly in the mid-range, with only subtle nuances; echo effects are occasionally hinted at, and agogic refinements are used sparingly. Ornamentations, while sometimes added where not explicitly notated, are only slightly varied in the repeats of the typically two-part sonatas. Tempos are chosen to ensure the structure of the sonatas remains clearly audible—virtuosity is never an end in itself.
Scarlatti’s Originality
The booklet commentary by Thomas Seedorf rightly emphasizes that Scarlatti was a master of surprises. For example, in the E-minor Sonata K. 394, there is an arpeggio section that seems almost unrelated to the piece, and one hears unexpected key shifts as the bar groupings move in thirds. In Ullrich’s interpretation, one senses his delicate exploration of the humor in such passages, yet he avoids any exaggeration. On the other hand, he is also an interpreter who embraces the seriousness of certain sonatas. Some of the pieces marked “Andante” are taken deliberately slowly to deepen their expression, as in the E-minor Sonata K. 402, which concludes the first CD. At eight and a half minutes, it becomes the longest work in the collection, even though the second section is not repeated in this instance.
The booklet (in English and German) provides information about the pianist’s work, highlighting his pursuit of “unconventional program formats” and his ongoing Scarlatti complete recording project since 2011. It also offers insights into the composition of the sonatas, most of which were written for Maria Bárbara de Braganza, the Spanish infanta.
Prof. Klaus Trapp
Rondo. Das Klassik & Jazz Magazin –
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Thus, this new episode once again offers the curious listener a veritable, overflowing arsenal of bubbling flights of fancy and profound fantasizing, whose enigmatic logic Ullrich nevertheless shapes with razor-sharp precision.
Attila Csampai