What a way to celebrate 10 years in the recording studio by returning with some considerable style to the composer with which he embarked on this musical journey: Scarlatti.

It is perhaps worth quoting from Sudbin's illuminating and entertaining notes on his approach to these performances:
"One of the most fascinating things about Scarlatti is that no matter how many recordings there are of his music, he never sounds the same: with this composer there is an endless number of possible approaches and transformations. This is in my opinion particularly the case of performances on the piano because the music *has* to be transformed and adjusted to the modern instrument and one has to make conscious decisions about how to do this without distorting the original idea."
This extract is further expanded upon and goes further in outlining the musical dilemmas he feels need to be acknowledged and resolved. Needless to say, that Sudbin - to these ears - has succeeded with the challenges he set himself in relation to perform this music.

In the opening two sonatas, we have a fugue in which Sudbin manages to evoke aural images of the Busoni transcriptions of Bach's organ oeuvre (that would make for a fascinating recital from Mr Sudbin were he to be so tempted!) before paring down his tonal palette to that which listeners might expect from, say, Andras Schiff or Murray Perahia. There is enormous imagination in every note that goes to delight the ear & heart as much as the head of a "purist" or fan of HIP might be reeling. There is no doubt to this listener that playing of this quality makes the intellectual "concerns" take a very distant second place.

Scarcely a bar goes by where one is not inwardly gasping at the audacity of technique and to what stunning musical effects it is applied (admittedly from the Vladimir Horowitz end of the spectrum rather than that of Pierre Hantaï!) This holds true even for sonatas, like K 213 in D minor, where the pulse is slower and the music is written in a less outwardly virtuoso style. For all the dazzling and dizzying variations in timbre employed (by both Scarlatti & Sudbin), the one thing that remains constant for the duration of the disc is the sense of wonder evoked by such magically musical and virtuoso playing.

The recording, made over 3 distinct periods, from St Georges Brandon Hill, Bristol is as true to attending in real life as any recordings emanating from that wonderful chamber acoustic (which is perhaps another way of saying that the recording is technically perfect) and the piano used is in very good condition indeed.

Extraordinary and compelling pianism given the quality of delivery that it so richly deserves; this will surely count as one of the finest releases of 2016 for classical music.

Copyright © 2016 John Broggio and HRAudio.net

Performance:

Sonics (Multichannel):