WE ARE MORE ALIKE THAN UNALIKE - Domenico Scarlatti

Playing Domenico Scarlatti’s keyboard music is a great pleasure and also a big challenge. Besides the complications of playing baroque ornamentations, of mastering the rather difficult technical requirements, and of simply finding a compelling interpretation of a piece written so long ago, there’s also the huge question of truthfulness to a historic interpretation.

I did not play this piece on a harpsichord, which would be the instrument most closely related to the instruments Mr. Scarlatti might have used. I decided to play on ‘my’ instrument and make Scarlatti’s music sound as good on our current modern grand piano as I possibly can.

Great renditions of the past - such as the famous recording of Vladimir Horowitz - are wonderful inspirations on the search for one’s very own and personal interpretation. Ultimately however we interpreters are charged with the task or better the opportunity to create our very own relevant, and perhaps touching rendition of a piece written by a composer who lived at a very different time, under very different circumstances, and with a very different understanding of his surroundings.

On the path to finding my own interpretation it helps me to focus on the idea, that we humans are more alike than we are unalike, meaning that the emotional world of Domenico Scarlatti might not have been all that different from ours even though centuries have come and gone.

This performance focuses on tonal and structural clarity, whilst conveying a sense of intimacy. I hope it brings you a little closer to the magnificent world of Domenico Scarlatti.