Domenico Scarlatti: 18 Sonatas—Yevgeny Sudbin, piano (Bis 2138)
With the 2005 release of his first recording for Bis Records, Russian pianist Yevgeny Sudbin catapulted into the pages of the international music press. The disc was a Scarlatti recital that prompted reviewers worldwide to compare the then 24-year-old pianist in the most flattering terms to Scarlatti experts such as Horowitz and Pletnev. It received a long list of distinctions, including an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, where the accompanying review described it as ‘among the finest, certainly most enjoyable of all Scarlatti recitals’. Fast forward 10 years: more sonatas by the same composer, same result. Harriet Smith at gramophone.co.uk concludes her detailed rave with these words: “The triumph of this disc is not that it makes you think ‘what wonderful playing’, but ‘what wonderful sonatas’. Again and again you marvel at Scarlatti’s endless invention. And, tellingly, Sudbin ends on a profound note with the tenderly inward Kk32…given a lusciously vocal quality, which is beautifully captured by BIS’s sensitive recording. A winner.”
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