Diapason d’Or
November 2019
Nouveauté

Gramophone Magazine
December 2019
Editor's Choice

Pierre Hantaï (harpsichord)

Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K119 in D major
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K179 in G minor
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K234 in G minor
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K501 in C Major
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K502 in C major
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K69 in F minor
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K43 in G minor
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K384 in C major
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K487 in C major
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K170 in C major
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K6 in F major
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K550 in B flat major
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K18 in D minor
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K544 in B flat major
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K273 in B flat major
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K161 in D major
Scarlatti, D: Keyboard Sonata K477 in G major

No one is so eminently personal as Scarlatti: he obeys no rules but his own. When he arrived in Portugal at the age of thirty-four, he was still no more than a conventional composer, overshadowed by his father, even if he had made a reputation as an outstanding virtuoso. But the discovery of new cultures had a revelatory effect on him.

This volume 6 continues Pierre Hantaï’s exploration of the sonatas of Scarlatti.

"Hantaï never makes the mistake of tearing into these pieces and wrestling them. If the music itself seems to approach organised chaos in places, his playing is always controlled, seeking out lyricism and humanity, no matter how fast the notes fly… And when Scarlatti explicitly sings his soul, so does Hantaï…With every superb new release, the Frenchman is laying further claim to a position as perhaps the best Scarlatti harpsichordist of all." - Gramophone Magazine, December 2019.