With the 2005 release of his first recording for BIS Records, Yevgeny Sudbin catapulted into the pages of the international music press. The disc was a Scarlatti recital that prompted reviewers worldwide to compare the then 24-year old pianist in the most flattering terms to Scarlatti experts such as Horowitz and Pletnev. It went on to receive a long list of distinctions, including an Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, with an accompanying review which described it as ‘among the finest, certainly most enjoyable of all Scarlatti recitals’. Since then, Sudbin and BIS have enjoyed a highly successful collaboration, resulting in numerous acclaimed recordings of both solo programmes and concertos
To celebrate the past 10 years, a new Scarlatti recording seemed the obvious choice as the perfect anniversary present – to ourselves, and of course to all Sudbin fans and Scarlatti lovers. In short: Sudbin met up with Marion Schwebel, the recording producer with whom he has collaborated from the very beginning, for recording sessions in the silken acoustics of St George’s in Bristol. The results can be heard on this new disc: 18 sonatas selected from the total of 555 – a collection compared in Sudbin’s own liner notes to ‘a necklace which breaks, producing a resounding hail of glistening pearls, rolling around and bouncing about like precious bubbles of watery beauty.’