A discographical note: Volume 11 is actually the second installment issued in Christoph Ullrich’s projected complete Scarlatti sonata cycle. The pianist has sequenced each volume...

A discographical note: Volume 11 is actually the second installment issued in Christoph Ullrich’s projected complete Scarlatti sonata cycle. The pianist has sequenced each volume by sonata in numerical order. His initial release, Volume 1, contains sonatas 1 through 42; sonatas 358 through 387 are here on Volume 11; and Nos. 43 through 357 presumably will follow on Volumes 2 through 10.

The admirable qualities of Ullrich’s earlier Mozart and Schubert releases often inform his Scarlatti, starting with the rhythmic kick and well-turned ornaments in the two opening D major sonatas. Ullrich’s firm and deliberate F minor K. 365 proves equally rewarding alongside faster, lighter piano versions from Serge Babyan and Yevgeny Sudbin. However, Konstantin Scherbakov bests Ullrich’s K. 360 for linear independence.

Ullrich takes the E-flat K. 371 Allegro directive with a grain of salt, and employs changes of color and pace to illuminate the music’s unpredictable harmonic shifts, whereas Maurizio Baglini is fast, harder hitting, and just a few feet short of reckless. The adjacent B minor K. 376/377 pair are sensitively phrased, although Ullrich’s F major K. 378 seems a trifle prosaic next to Fou Ts’ong’s brighter, more unpredictably accented reading, while his relatively flat and generic K. 380 pales in comparison with individually gripping interpreters of this popular sonata such as Horowitz, Lipatti, and the unusually slow yet mesmerizing David Greilsammer.

Ullrich’s clear and shapely delineation of the F minor K. 386’s busy, toccata-like writing is perfectly fine on its own terms, but Christian Zacharias’ suppler touch elevates this approach to a higher level, albeit a few notches below Clara Haskil’s breathtakingly fast yet perfectly controlled 1950 Westminster recording. Though less striking on the surface than Mikhail Pletnev’s spiky, aggressive K. 387, Ullrich’s suaver, faster, and more graceful performance is easier to digest. In a nutshell, Ullrich’s Scarlatti is never less than good, if not so consistently outstanding as Carlo Grante’s ongoing Scarlatti cycle on Music & Arts.

-- Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com