SCARLATTI BELDER - KEYBOARD SONATAS 9 CD

SKU/Barcode: 842977032222

Pieter-Jan Belder, a student of Bob van Asperen, is one of just a few keyboardists to have undertaken the gargantuan task of recording all of Domenico Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas -- he is doing them in order by catalog number, and with this set of three CDs he is on the home stretch with his ninth volume. The most distinctive feature of Belder's set is that he uses several different instruments, including a fortepiano -- English-speaking listeners may be confused by the designation on the package of this as a "pianoforte," but it is a modern reproduction of a fortepiano by Ferrini, one of the earliest builders in the instrument's tradition. The use of a fortepiano is not a surprise, for since the appearance of Scott Ross' all-harpsichord Scarlatti cycle in the 1980s the idea that Scarlatti might have been one of the piano's early champions has gained currency. Four different harpsichords are used, as well (and he has used an organ in other sets). It is hard to divine Belder's thought processes in regard to why he picked the instruments he did for each piece, and the sparse booklet notes included with this budget release do nothing to enlighten us. Why, for instance, is the Sonata in E major, K. 380, one of the better known items among the 555, assigned to the harpsichord, while the Sonata in F minor, K. 387, is given to the piano? The former work is built upon echo effects deriving from clear musical periods, precisely the features that stimulated piano builders, while the latter is a pure polyphonic construction that Bach could have written; the piano adds nothing to it at all. Furthermore, although the booklet makes the valid point that the sonic distance between the early fortepiano and the harpsichord was not great, the fortepiano used here does not bear that idea out; it has a heavy, percussive attack that creates a sound completely different from those of the various harpsichords. All this said, there is nothing here to affect the superior price/value ratio of Belder's releases. His playing is forceful and methodical, making up for in detail what it lacks in relaxed virtuoso flash, and it's well suited to the project of capturing Scarlatti's sonatas in all their diverse glory. Libraries and other completists can be confident about this volume in Belder's ongoing set.