in search of scarlatti’s harpsichord ❧ 135
is actually a diffusing and weakening effect in terms of the total language of
expression. I know engravers and etchers who quite rightly refuse to exhibit
any of their work in a gallery in which painting is to be hung at the same time.
Inevitably painting or rich color catches the eye, has a physical attraction far
superior to that of black and white, and discourages the concentration that
is necessary for the contemplation of graphic art and for listening to certain
kinds of music.
If I myself manage to sweep away a few of the old cobwebs, some are still
hanging on. The rest of the world has by no means done so. I fi nd that many
of the old and obsolete ideas of Scarlatti are still dominant. First, the ideas that
I so clearly expressed in my senior term paper dominate most of the Italian
approach to Scarlatti. The result of this was that this recent program of mine
was originally prepared for an Italian tour of last spring; every single one of
the auspices, including Naples, turned it down and demanded Bach, so I put it
away for a year before playing it. I have now fi nally been asked to play Scarlatti
again in Italy in the May festival in Florence, but what do they ask me to play?—
the early sonatas and the same old chestnuts that were used by Casella in his
transcriptions for his Scarlattiana.^7 In a way, I’m asked to lend my services for
reinforcing the old notions of Scarlatti. I’m going to try, however, to twist this
around and sneak in a few of the late sonatas and, at least in the rare cases
when Casella has chosen a late sonata, couple it at least with its mate. To get
away with it will probably involve much more correspondence on the subject
than I really want to undertake.
Considering the enormous changes that I can recall as a performer in my
dealings since the publication of the Scarlatti book in 1953, one is tempted
to ask, what about the utterances in the book? I had occasion to look at that
again very closely last summer in revising the galley proofs of the forthcoming
German translation. And whereas in the last chapter on interpretation there
was much that could have been expanded or much that I felt could have been
clarifi ed, there was nothing I felt obliged to withdraw. And in the chapter on
Scarlatti’s instruments, I made no changes; I was not tempted to make any
changes, expansions, or clarifi cations at all. It did occur to me, however, that
I was a little more tolerant of the use of possibilities of registration offered by
modern harpsichords with pedals than I would be nowadays. I think I sensed
more in theory that they were unnecessary than had ever been conveyed in fact
by the presence of instruments that made this possible. I think now I would
have been much more dogmatic since having the experience of using instru-
ments which render these kinds of subterfuges unnecessary, and I probably
- I believe RK is referring to Alfredo Casella, Scarlattiana: Divertimento su musiche
di Domenico Scarlatti per pianoforte e piccola orchestra (Vienna: Universal Edition,
1927).
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