Works transcribed by Matêj Freml
Sonata in G major, K.33 [4:27]
Sonata in D major, K.208 [3:41]
Sonata in D major, K.209 [4:48]
Sonata in G minor, K.466 [7:53]
Sonata in G minor, K.467 [3:26]
Sonata in A minor, K.417 [5:16]
Sonata in D major, K.491 [5:05]
Sonata in A minor, K 238 [5:19]
Sonata in A minor, K.239 [3:28]
Sonata in D minor, K.30 [4:33]
Siempre Nuevo (Matêj Freml and Patrick Vacík (guitars))
rec. Casa Giovanni di Mattoni, Hauzenberg, Bavaria, 22-24 August 2011. DDD
ARCODIVA UP 0154-2 131 [48:11]
Musicological argument continues intermittently as to the instrument for
which Scarlatti wrote his sonatas - or, indeed, that on which he normally
played them: harpsichord or fortepiano. In later centuries there have been
many rewarding performances on the modern concert grand, by Gieseking, Horowitz
and Mikhail Pletnev. All of this suggests that the virtues of the music
are not inextricably bound up with the possibilities of a specific instrument.
That is confirmed by the success of arrangements and orchestrations of the
sonatas, such as Charles Avison’s Twelve Concerti Grossi after Scarlatti
(1743-44) or, nearer our own time, of Shostakovich’s astonishing arrangements
of K9 and K20 for wind band.
Given that the music of the Spanish guitar clearly influenced elements of
what Scarlatti did in these sonatas, arrangements of his music for that
instrument make particularly good sense. There have been fine arrangements
for/performances on solo guitar by, inter alia, Claudio Giuliani, Carlo
Marchione, David Russell, Eliot Fisk, David Tanenbaum and Stephen Marchionda.
Now here is a rewarding programme of transcriptions for two guitars, played
by the Czech duo Siempre Nuevo. Siempre Nuevo consists of Matêj Freml
and Patrick Vacík and all the transcriptions played on this CD are
the work of Matêj Freml.
The solo guitar cannot really match the textural complexity possible on
the harpsichord. This is not to take sides in the argument about which keyboard
instrument Scarlatti was writing for. The use of two guitars goes some way
towards overcoming this limitation, especially when the two instrumentalists
work together as well, as symbiotically as Freml and Vacík do. All
of the pieces here make for enjoyable listening, though it can’t,
I think, be said that there are any cases where what is to be heard actually
sounds like an improvement on the same sonata interpreted by, say, Scott
Ross. The rhythmic patterns of K.33 (a lively allegro) sound particularly
effective in this format; K.208 (marked Andante é cantabile),
on the other hand, lacks the plangent lyricism that a good keyboard performance
articulates. Indeed, the faster movements/sonatas, work better, on the whole,
than the slower ones on this disc. One exception is the movingly poignant
performance of K.208. The performance of K.209, a piece which echoes with
the dance rhythms of the jota - a dance Scarlatti would certainly
have encountered in his years in Spain - is particularly delightful, as
is the fandango-based K.239.
Scarlatti is a quintessentially Mediterranean composer. Much of his nature
and of his remarkable body of sonatas is summed up memorably, if somewhat
lavishly, by Sacheverell Sitwell (in his Southern Baroque Revisited,
1967) when he writes “His Latinity, of Sicilian and Parthenopaean
[i.e. Neapolitan] origin, and of Roman and Venetian experience, found its
fulfilment in the Spanish setting”. Perhaps Freml and Vacík,
for all their skills, don’t quite do justice to the Mediterranean
dimension of Scarlatti’s work, to its passionate outbursts and occasional
wildness. This is in part, I suspect, a matter of the choice of sonatas,
and partly a matter of a degree of reserve in their playing. What they do
is renew one’s sense that what Sitwell wrote (in the same book), on
the basis of an incomplete acquaintance with the sonatas, offer an important
perception “taking into consideration all the different facets in
his huge and varied output, it would seem that Domenico Scarlatti did not
anticipate the development of the modern pianoforte. His bias would appear
to have been towards the progression and perfection of mandoline and guitar
subjects, but in directions and dimensions of which those instruments in
themselves are incapable”.
This, then, is a disc of interest and value in itself in ways which should
please and interest aficionadi of the guitar and which also, intentionally
or otherwise, makes one think again about Scarlatti’s remarkable sonatas.
Glyn Pursglove
A disc of interest and value which also makes one think again about Scarlatti’s
remarkable sonatas.
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