Abstract

Records

Ralph Kirkpatrick's superb book on Scarlatti was followed by his edition of sixty of the harpsichord sonatas, in which he gave the correct texts. In addition Kirkpatrick adopted the admirable procedure of keeping the text free of his ideas for performance and putting them into a long preface, but the special style of this music is one the author can't imagine a student learning from printed directions alone, even directions as intelligent as Kirkpatrick's, and more effective instruction is provided now by his recorded performances of the sixty sonatas, which enable the student to near how the notation is converted into the living sound. It is painful to have to say about a man who brings to the music dedication and love and knowledge like Kirkpatrick's that he play much of it with dull plainness and some of it with stiffness aim heavy stolidity, qualities which are made worse by his use of a Challis harpsichord.