One can’t praise Naxos enough for its ongoing traversal of Domenico Scarlatti’s 555 keyboard sonatas. This variegated constellation deserves to be widely available in full, and the choice of a great deal of different pianists to achieve the monumental enterprise is a wise one. Michael Lewin performs his selection of 19 sonatas with contrasted tempos and carefully detailed articulation. His steady, soberly sensitive touch shows a limited but effective array of shades, somewhat tempered by the bright and clangorous recording. Technically very secure, Lewin rests more on rhythmical pugnacity and pungency of accents than on tonal refinement (though the latter is not absent)–an option convincingly defended, enough to make the question of the instrument (harpsichord against piano) purposeless. The program includes some of Scarlatti’s most famous sonatas. Among them, four are in D minor: the painful K. 32, the guitar-like K. 141 with its redoubtable series of repeated notes, the meditative K. 213, and the lightning-fast K. 517. The A major K. 322 is another gem–as is the expressive B minor K. 27, recorded with unforgettable pathos by Gilels, or more stylishly by Michelangeli and Marcelle Meyer. Lewin’s playing easily sustains comparison with such piano giants, even if he never reaches the same heights of individuality. Rightly so, as this is part of a large-breadth project with a documentary purpose, where homogeneity counts more than occasional flashes of inspiration–no matter how great they are.
