Henryk Wieniawski - Polonaise de Concert in D Major, Op. 4
Augustin Hadelich (Violin)
Yingdi Sun (Piano)
October 26, 2009
This week we’re celebrating the birthday of the great Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti, who was born on October 26, 1685. 1685 was a good year: Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handle were also born that year. Scarlatti wrote 555 sonatas, only a small part of which were published during his lifetime. Vladimir Horowitz and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli were wonderful (and very different) interpreters. Most of Scarlatti’s sonatas were written for harpsichord. We’ll hear four of them played on the modern piano (by the Italian pianist Mauro Bertoli, the American pianist and composer Heather Schmidt, the young Chinese pianist Jie Chen, and Mauro Bertoli again), and then on fortepiano by David Schrader. To listen, please click here.
We would be amiss not to mention Niccolò Paganini, who was also born this week in 1782. Listen here as Albert Markov plays Moses, Variations on One String. Exquisite.
Excerpts from the pianist Jorge Federico Osorio's Interview with Bruce Duffie
BD: How far back do you go in music? Do you play some Bach and Scarlatti?
JFO: Yes, Bach, of course. Scarlatti, yes. It’s from then on, really, that I play.
BD: All on the modern piano?
JFO: On the modern piano, yes. I enjoy his music tremendously on the modern piano!
BD: Do you have any feelings about people who insist on doing it only on the old instruments?
JFO: It’s interesting, but I’m not that convinced by it. I think it sounds so expressive on the piano. That’s just the way I feel. I don’t think I would go and get myself an instrument just to see. We really don’t know, really, what was in their minds. At that time, those were the instruments that were available, but it’s not to say that they were stuck with that! I think the music is much greater than that. It transcends all that, so it’s fine with me to play Bach on the piano.... Like Beethoven, also. In his last sonatas you really get a feeling that he was searching for something new, something he was really trying to get out of there. And when you hear these on instruments that were there when he was alive, I don’t think it has the same impact. I’m not all that for it.
Flavio Chamis - J.S. Bach - Suite for Viola and Jazz Trio (Gigue from the Cello Suite No. 4)
Tatjana Mead Chamis (Viola)
Flavio Chamis - J.S. Bach - Suite for Viola and Jazz Trio (Gavotte I from the Cello Suite No. 6)
Tatjana Mead Chamis (Viola)
Flavio Chamis - J.S. Bach - Suite for Viola and Jazz Trio (Gavotte II from the Cello Suite No. 5)
Tatjana Mead Chamis (Viola)
Flavio Chamis - J.S. Bach - Suite for Viola and Jazz Trio (Sarabande from the Cello Suite No. 5)
Tatjana Mead Chamis (Viola)
Flavio Chamis - J.S. Bach - Suite for Viola and Jazz Trio (Courante from the Cello Suite No. 3)
Tatjana Mead Chamis (Viola)
Flavio Chamis - J.S. Bach - Suite for Viola and Jazz Trio (Allemande from the Cello Suite No. 2)
Tatjana Mead Chamis (Viola)
Flavio Chamis - J.S. Bach - Suite for Viola and Jazz Trio (Prelude from the Cello Suite No. 1)
Tatjana Mead Chamis (Viola)
David Budway (Piano)
Jayden Bean (Percussion)
Denson Angulo (Double Bass)