VIKTORIA LAKISSOVA: Music of Tribute / Vol. 4 - Scarlatti

Viktoria Lakissova

Music of Tribute / Vol. 4 - Scarlatti

© 2005 Labor Records (790987707725)

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A Labor Records historic series that pays homage to great composers by linking their work with music—often unknown, rediscovered or previously unrecorded—that pays tribute to them through dedication, homage or thematic reference.

notes

Viktoria Lakissova, the highly acclaimed Russian/German piano virtuosa, has recorded the fourth in Labor Records’ “Music of Tribute” series dedicated to Scarlatti

The Scarlatti in question is the great 18th century keyboard composer, Domenico Scarlatti. Eight of his miniature masterpieces are performed in alternation with 19th and 20th century works written in homage to the great Italian master.
Many of the works in tribute performed by Ms. Lakissova were created and originally performed by some of the greatest piano virtuosi of the past century. These include Leopold Godowsky whose Concert-Allegro is an arrangement of the famous A major Sonata; the young French-Canadian pianist Marc-André Hamelin whose Essercizio was inspired by Scarlatti and Spike Jones (!); Raymond Lewenthal, famous for his Alkan recordings and romantic revivalism; and Alkan himself, apparently one of the first to perform and arrange Scarlatti in the 19th century. The roster also includes the modernists Walter Steffens (whose teacher, Philip Jarnach was the pupil of yet another great virtuoso, Ferruccio Busoni) and the Hungarian composer Györy Kurtág. Other composers represented are Jean Françaix, the Macedonian composer Vlastimir Nikolovski, and the Russian/French/American composer Marcelle de Manziarly.

A co-production with Radio Bremen, Bremen, Germany

TRACK LISTING

Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)
1. Sonata in G major L 486

Jean Francaix (1912-1997)
2. Hommage à Scarlatti

Domenico Scarlatti
3. Sonata in B minor L 33

Marcelle de Manziarly (1899-1989)
4. Hommage à Scarlatti

Domenico Scarlatti
5. Sonata in B flat major L 396

Vlastimir Nikolovski (1925-2001)
6. Sonata in G

Domenico Scarlatti
7. Sonata in C minor L 360

Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813-1888)
8. Duettino (alla D. Scarlatti)

Domenico Scarlatti
9. Sonata in D major L 415

Raymond Lewenthal (1926-1988)
10. Toccata alla Scarlatti

Domenico Scarlatti
11. Sonata in A minor L 134

Marc-André Hamelin (1961-)
12. Esercizio per pianoforte (1992)

Domenico Scarlatti
13. Sonata in F major L 432

Leopold Godowsky (1870-1938)
14. Concert-Allegro

Domenico Scarlatti
15. Sonata in E major L 21

Walter Steffens (1934-)
16. Hommage à Scarlatti

György Kurtág (1926-)
17. Hommage à D.S.


REVIEW / musicweb
I recently reviewed an earlier volume in Labor’s series ‘Music of Tribute’ (see review) where the object of tribute was Villa-Lobos. I said then that the concept was a very interesting one and that it made for a very stimulating CD. The same goes for this volume, made up of keyboard music by - or in tribute to – Domenico Scarlatti.
The pianist here is Viktoria Lakissova, who is a new name to me. She was born in St. Petersburg, studied at the Special School of Music at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory and then at the Conservatory itself. She later studied with Ekaterina Murina and at the Hochschle für Musik und Theater in Hamburg. She has won her fair share of international piano competitions. On the evidence of this CD she is a decidedly promising young pianist. She has clear articulation, technical facility and musical perceptiveness. While her performances of the Scarlatti sonatas are not the very finest I have ever heard on the modern piano – the competition, after all, includes Horowitz and Pletnev, to name but two – they are far more than merely adequate. Nor does she find too much to trouble her in the considerable technical demands in some of the other pieces, such as those by Alkan, Lewenthal and Hamelin.
Sonatas by Scarlatti are interleaved, as it were, with tributes by other composers. The nature of the ‘tribute’ naturally varies a good deal. Francaix’s characteristically witty Hommage employs such Scarlatti characteristics as the contrast of keys and imitation between the hands. As well as Scarlatti there are allusions to Beethoven and Debussy, too. Still, the Hommage was published (in 1987) in a set called Promenade d’un Musicologue Eclectique! Manziarly’s Hommage is vivacious piece full of Scarlatti-like effects, its tonal writing spiced by occasional unexpected harmonies.The piece by Steffens, on the other hand, uses intervals of a decidedly modern kind, and has a less direct relationship to the Scarlatti model, though it does adopt the binary form that characterises the sonatas. Kurtag’s 17 bars of music introduce four changes of tempo and create the illusion of a Scarlatti sonata that has been passed through a kind of serialising, compressing machine!
The Toccata alla Scarlatti is, so far as I can remember, the first composition by the pianist Raymond Lewenthal which I have ever encountered. It is a convincing piece of pastiche with, unsurprisingly, plenty of opportunities for bravura playing. Marc-André Hamelin is, of course, another who is far better known as a pianist than as a composer. The full title of his piece is Étude No. VI, Essercizio per pianoforte and it carries the subtitle ‘Omaggio a Domenico Scarlatti’. Scarlatti, it is worth remebering, used the word Essercizi to refer to his keyboard compositions.There is a recording of this piece by Hamelin himself on the CD Kaleidescope (Hyperion), which I haven’t heard. This particular ‘ommaggio’ is an absolute joy! I can’t better the description of it by Eric Salzman in his booklet notes for this issue, where he describes it "as a piece that Domenico might actually have written, but which is constantly interrupted by wrong notes, not to say streams of wrong notes, à la Maestro Jones" (Spike Jones, that is!).
You will gather that there is plenty of fun on this CD, as well as some serious reflections – some of the pieces are, indeed, mirrors held up to specific earlier works – on the wonderful keyboard compositions of Domenico Scarlatti. I recommend it warmly.
Glyn Pursglove / MUSICWEB


BIO / Viktoria Lakissova
Viktoria Lakissova was born in St. Petersburg and began to play the piano at the age of five. In 1983, she was admitted to the Special School of Music at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory where she studied until 1994 when she was admitted to the Conservatory itself. After graduating with a gold medal, she continued her studies with Ekaterina Murina at the Conservatory and also studied piano at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, Germany, with Volker Banfield. She has been the recipient of many grants including a fellowship from the “Young Talents from Russia" program on
and she was also supported for many years by the Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation in Hamburg. In 2002, she was given the Ritter Prize for her artistic achievements. She won her first international prize at the age of 13 and subsequently took first prizes in competitions in Sydney, Moscow, Athens, Marsala (Italy), as well as Bremen, Hamburg, and Mannheim in Germany. She performs as a soloist all over Europe and has made solo appearances with orchestras of the stature of the Hamburger Symphoniker, Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe, Klassische Philharmonie Bonn, Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Halle, and Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie.
She has also performed in major German concert halls including the Konzerthaus Berlin, Hamburger Musikhalle, Beethovenhalle Bonn, and the Stuttgarter Liederhalle. Since 2001, Ms. Lakissova has been teaching piano at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Hannover, Germany.

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