Joyce Yang, piano : Collage

Piano International (Jan, 2012)
Joyce Yang’s brief introduction to this recital in the CD’s booklet is remarkably eloquent – alas, more eloquent than her Scarlatti. She starts with the well-known D minor Kk9, which is charmingly delivered but has moments of left-hand literalness that imply a work in progress. It’s a nice idea to have Sebastian Currier’s Scarlatti Cadences straight after the two D minor Scarlatti sonatas – an expansion of Scarlatti that slows it all down and introduces vast registral spaces. Currier’s Brainstorm is an obsessive, minimalist-influenced take on a typical Scarlatti gesture. The calm of Debussy’s Estampes is marred by a surface interpretation, but the Lowell Liebermann Gargoyles (recorded before by Boriskin on …