Domenico Scarlatti

Embrace the spirit of spanish guitar on the forte piano!



Frédéric Chopin, as a piano teacher, notably wrote:
"Those of my dear colleagues who teach the piano are unhappy that I make my own pupils work on Scarlatti. But I am surprised that they are so blinkered. His music contains finger-exercises aplenty and more than a touch of the most elevated spirituality. Sometimes he is even a match for Mozart. If I were not afraid of incurring the disapprobation of numerous fools, I would play Scarlatti at my concerts. I maintain that the day will come when Scarlatti's music will often be played at concerts and that audiences will appreciate and enjoy it".

Quoted in the liner notes to Domenico Scarlatti, Sonatas, Anne Queffélec (piano). Apex CD 0927 44353 2 (2002).

Scarlatti is contemporary of Bach and Handel. He was born in Naples, Kingdom of Naples in 1685. Although he was born in Italy, he spent most of his lifetime under the service of Portuguese and Spanish royal families.

In his lifetime, he composed 555 keyboard sonatas. They are in single movement and mostly in binary form. Most of the sonatas are written for harpsichords and earliest pianofortes. (4 of them are for organ and some for group ensembles) As he spent most of his life time working for Portugese and Spanish royal families, his compositions display Iberian influence (Spanish and Portugese folk songs). At that time it was considered unconventional to have modulations to "exotic" keys and daring use of discords.

Source: wikipedia

Obviously if you listen to a lot of spanish music you will find that the Iberian flavor in Scarlatti's works comes from the guitar. Just like Chopin, I found that spanish guitar is very uplifting. A "sad" or "depressed" chord sounds so uplifting because of the "flamenco rhythm".

Schedule for a Piano Lesson at TEN PIANO STUDIO

Music of the Day

The piano part is so sexy with the zest of the cello. Does anyone recognize some of the motifs? Interesting~! :-) I love the decisive strum on the different instruments respectively.

Tango Pathetique, Argerich, Kremer & Maisky

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Music of the Day

My favorite piece. So fun to listen to. It sent a chill down my spine.

Shostakovich Trio No.2 Mv.4 performed by my favorite musicians Argerich, Kremer & Maisky

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Mozart Sonata K448

performed by Argerich & Baldocci

Mozart Sonata KV448
I. Allegro con spirito
II. Andante
III. Molto Allegro

This sonata for 2 pianos was composed in galant style, posing the beauty of echoing melodies and puntuating cadences. It is believed that listening to this sonata will have the "Mozart Effect", i. e., listening improve spatial reasoning and reduce the number of seizures in people with epilepsy(According to the British Epilepsy Oganization). Other than this sonata, According to the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, research suggested that Mozart's Concerto K488and Greek Composer Yanni's "Acroyali/Standing in Motion" can also make the listeners experience "Mozart Effect" due to the similar tempo, musical structure, melodic & harmonic consonance and predictability.

First Movement


Second Movement


Third Movement

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Faded colors

I love this piece very much! The harmony of this piece makes me think of a tv with faded colors. Martha Argerich plays Danza De La Moza Donoso from Ginastera's Danzas Argentinas.

Martha Argerich,Ravel Jeux d'eau

originally telecast july 31,1977

Let the water wash away all your bad fiery energy, calm your mind, and restore your pureness.

Power Boost

Turn up your volume and have a Power Boost. Note that the repeated notes needs both fast hand action as well as piano with good hammer strikes :)
Performed by Argerich & Freire - Rachmaninov's Suite for 2 Pianos - Tarantella

Take a deep breath

Ondine is another water piece introduced by Vita M blog after Chopin's Barcarolle. It is one of the character pieces from Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit, a set of 3 compositions inspired by French poet, Aloysius Bertrand's poems. There are a lot of water-like sound arrangements since this is about a water ghost "Ondine" who tried to seduce men into her water and drown them. As usual, you will find technical parts for piansits in Ravel's composition. In "Ondine", the challenging part is the repeated right hand chords that are supposed to be repeated in "micro-seconds" and the challange to maintain the softness and even-ness of the chords. Water has been a very popular extra-musical reference for many composers. ( Chopin, Debussy, Ravel, etc. ) This is probably because water resembles elegant, smooth, fluidity, zen-like quality of piano sound. A piece about water is always an incredible composition.

The original poem, Ondine:
" Ecoute ! - Ecoute ! - C'est moi, c'est Ondine qui
frôle de ces gouttes d'eau les losanges sonores de ta
fenêtre illuminée par les mornes rayons de la lune ;
et voici, en robe de moire, la dame châtelaine qui
contemple à son balcon la belle nuit étoilée et le beau
lac endormi.

" Chaque flot est un ondin qui nage dans le courant,
chaque courant est un sentier qui serpente vers mon palais,
et mon palais est bâti fluide, au fond du lac, dans le
triangle du feu, de la terre et de l'air.

" Ecoute ! - Ecoute ! - Mon père bat l'eau coassante
d'une branche d'aulne verte, et mes soeurs caressent de
leurs bras d'écume les fraîches îles d'herbes, de nénu-
phars et de glaïeuls, ou se moquent du saule caduc et
barbu qui pêche à la ligne ! "

*

Sa chanson murmurée, elle me supplia de recevoir son
anneau à mon doigt pour être l'époux d'une Ondine, et
de visiter avec elle son palais pour être le roi des lacs.

Et comme je lui répondais que j'aimais une mortelle,
boudeuse et dépitée, elle pleura quelques larmes, poussa
un éclat de rire, et s'évanouit en giboulées qui ruisse-
lèrent blanches le long de mes vitraux bleus.


Translation:

"Ecoute! - Ecoute! - THIS IS me, this is Ondine that brushes of these drops of water the sonorous losanges
of your window illuminated by the gloomy rays of the moon; and here, in dress of makes shimmer, the lady
châtelaine that contemplates to his balcony the beautiful night étoilée and the beautiful lake gone to sleep.

"Every wave is a water sprite that swims in the current, every current is a path that winds towards my palace,
and my palace is built fluid, at the far end of the lake, in the fire triangle, earth and air.

"Ecoute! - Ecoute! - My father beats water croaking of a branch of green alder, and my sisters caress of
their arms of foam the fresh islands of grasses, of nénu- phars and of gladiolas, or make fun of of the null
and bearded willow that fishes to the line! "

*

His murmured song, she implored me to receive his ring to my finger to be the spouse of an Ondine, and to
visit with her his palace to be the lake king.

And as I replied for him that I liked a mortal one, sulker and upset, she cried some tears, pushed a laugh
brightness, and faints in sudden showers that ruisse- white lèrent alongside my blue vitraux.

Performed by Martha Argerich.

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Take a deep breath

Sit back, relax, and let Bach's Toccata in C minor BWV 911 (Pianist Martha Argerich) amuses you :)

You can fall asleep and let your subsconscious mind listens to it.

For advanced pianists, listen to the multiple lines of the same themes and realize the magical effect of the long pause and the come back of the theme.

The Big Daddy's Music

Bach is the father of western classical music. More specifically, he is the father of harmony. Because western music is the play of harmony language.

Many advanced and extroverted pianists get easily bored by Bach's steady music. But I enjoy his music the most. The orderly, the sense of balance and the integerity in his music is something I seek all the time. It is spiritual. It enhances one's intuitive perception. It is like a spiritual cleansing process while listening to his compositions. That never go out of style and that never bore me. It is something that I need, like food. It makes me think calmer and clearer.

My favorites are his Goldberg Variations, French Suite No. 2, French Overture and Partita No. 2. There are several recordings of his music by different pianists out there. I have some personal preferences to recommend.


Best Goldberg Variations would be the one by Canadian pianist Glenn Gould. He recorded a legendary Goldberg Variations. But if you want to listen to someone who is still alive, I would recommend Murray Perahia's. Murray Perahia is a musically mature pianist who is good at performing Mozart, Chopin's etudes and now Bach.

French Suite No. 2 by Andras Schiffs is worth listening to . First movement is the one that I usually listen to before going to sleep.

There is one young pianist I recommend to include in your list when you want to listen to Bach's French Overture- Joyce Yang. She was not even 19 years old when she performed this live in Van Cliburn competition. But I felt in love with the music right after I heard she performed it. Maybe she was nervous to hell when she started her repertoire marathon with this Overture but I felt she played it like the music has grown inside her - natural!

For Partita No. 2, I recommend 2 versions of it. First one is the recording of Martha Argerich's live performance. It is amazing! It makes my blood running. The second one is more solitude, by Andras Schiffs.

Bach music has a kind of optimistism accompanying his pompous steady beat. When I feel low or gray, his music restores my optimistism and uplift my spirit. It is indeed a gift from god (or anything above this dirty air). So, let's revive and cherish Bach's music to clean up the depression air.