Evgeny Zarafiants - Scarlatti: Complete Keyboard Sonatas, Vol. 6 (2003) CD-Rip

I will yield to no one in my admiration for Scarlatti's piano sonatas (he modestly called them 'Essercizi' ['Exercises']), have played many of them at the piano, and have many, many recordings of them, including the complete set done by harpsichordist Scott Ross, before his too-early death. Naxos is slowly issuing a series that will eventually comprise all 555 sonatas, and each issue features a different pianist. Evgeny Zarafiants is a pianist previously unknown to me. I see that he has previously made a couple of CDs of Scriabin préludes, but I've not heard them. On the basis of this issue, though, I'd guess that his Scriabin would be good. I say that because this is pretty romantic-sounding Scarlatti. I'm no purist in these matters, though--if I were, I'd insist the sonatas be played only on harpsichord--and after my initial mild shock at the approach, I came to really enjoy these performances. Just listen, for instance, to the Sonata in D, K. 478. It is one of the slow ones--this performance takes over eleven minutes!--and has always, I will admit, been just a little bit boring for me. In Zarafiants' hands it becomes a musing but intense cavatina which I have returned to at least ten times since I got the CD. It is a mesmerizing performance, like that of a great actor doing a Shakespearean soliloquy. Within the fairly narrow range of soft dynamics, he shapes the sonata's melodic phrases as a great bel canto singer might. And thus this sonata becomes a gently pulsing aria of melancholy and resignation.
For many people it is Scarlatti's quick, virtuosic sonatas that are most attractive, with their pearly runs, Spanish or Italian rhythms, crisp repeated notes and tricky cross-hand passages. Mr Zarafiants' talents don't let us down here, either. In the Sonata in C, K. 502, for instance, there is fire and humor. In this sonata Scarlatti uses one of his characteristic devices, quick switches between 3/8 and 2/4; these are pointed up wittily by Mr Zarafiants. Delicious.
The sonatas on this disc are, by and large, not the most familiar ones, although the canonic Sonata in F major, K. 274, the virtuosic Sonata in F Sharp Minor, K. 318, and the quietly sad Sonata in C Sharp Minor, K. 247, are here. This mix makes for a constantly engaging, and sometimes surprising, disc.
Good work, Evgeny Zarafiants. I want more!
Sound, as one comes to expect from Naxos' piano recordings, is exemplary, as are the very helpful notes by Keith Anderson.