Andrea Bacchetti - The Scarlatti Restored Manuscript (2013)

The 15 Scarlatti sonatas and four Soler sonatas presented on this disc stem from a manuscript collection held in the National Library of St Mark’s in Venice. Although the booklet-notes trace the genealogy of the manuscripts rather thoroughly (once one gets past the convoluted English translation), there’s nothing concerning musical matters, such as textual discrepancies between these and other editions, alternative readings and the like. In any event, listeners who know Bacchetti’s measured, rounded and overly refined Bach playing will find themselves on familiar ground here. Scarlatti’s E major Sonata, Kk162, leisurely unfolds in ravishing legato lines that give way to a not particularly rapid middle section that nevertheless makes an impact due to its firmly churning left-hand chords and uniform trills. Still, I prefer Horowitz’s lighter touch and dramatically effective dynamic shifts, not to mention Christian Zacharias’s more assiduous transitions and wittier accentuation. Similarly, for all of Bacchetti’s hypnotic note-to-note concentration in the C major Sonata, Kk170, I find Francesco Nicolosi’s faster Naxos recording equally commanding from a tonal standpoint yet more cogently shaped.

Bacchetti’s control of sonority and articulation in Soler’s C major Sonata evokes the kind of dry-ice perfection associated with pianists like Michelangeli, yet play Martina Filjak’s Naxos version for more joyful animation and characterful life. There’s also more timbral and textural variety in Vestard Shimkus’s Soler D flat (also on Naxos). To my ears, the Fazioli F278 concert grand is the star of the show. -- Jed Distler, Gramophone