Scarlatti, Alexandre Tharaud plays Scarlatti
No matter how long I have been obsessed with classical music, I am never loyal to any specific eras or musicians. I listened to Beethoven a lot when I was much younger, and I was crazy about Italian and French operas. I am obsessed with Brahms, and recently I have been listening to Rachmaninoff after going to a concert.
Even though I don’t have a favorite musician, I have always been yearning for the elegant and classic atmosphere of Baroque music. Baroque music created my earliest memory about classical music before I knew all the other musicians. When I was about 12 years old, Baroque music to me was a beautiful dream in the magnificent palace with the crystal chandelier.
And now I find this dream again in this album: “Alexandre Tharaud plays Scarlatti”.
The French pianist Alexandre Tharaud makes a beautiful interpretation on these sonatas. He perfectly transfers these music made for harpsichord on modern piano, and depicts the scene of Spanish royal music for modern audiences.
Baroque music is always decorated and luxurious. Alexandre Tharaud accurately performs its transparency, subtlety and elegance. His music is like the raindrops on the leaves in the royal garden, the touches between the shining crystals on the luxury chandelier, and the steps by heels worn by the royalty on the marble floor at the magnificent palace. Besides the poetry and lightness, he also brings out the lively Spanish rhythm in the music which fully shows Scarlatti’s original works and palace life. Alexandre Tharaud’s perfection also makes these sonatas written for harpsichord perfectly performed on modern piano.
Therefore, in this Alexandre Tharaud’s album, we can hear the intrigues of Baroque time, and also immerse in the vintage air of the 17th century.
Alexandre Tharaud presents us an album of both vintage and modern. This album brings us both the classic and original taste for Baroque music, and fills in our imagination of the most luxurious and decorated era. In this album by Alexandre Tharaud, Scarlatti’s sonatas are gentle, obsessive and blazed between notes as they have always been though hundreds of years.
And this time, they glow in the 21st century.
