Domenico Scarlatti: Ninety Sonatas in Three Volumes, Volume III: Piano Book

This volume captures Scarlatti's mature period, where technical experimentation and formal sophistication reach their peak. The Kirkpatrick ordering and careful editorial notes ground students in both the scholarship and the living practice of these works, making this collection valuable whether you're building a Scarlatti cycle or mining it for recital gems.

These sonatas crackle with wit and surprise. Within their bounded single-movement form, Scarlatti pivots between galant charm and almost violent dissonance, between lyrical passages and hand-spanning virtuosity. There's an intimacy to them, as though each one invites you into a specific conversation between composer and performer.

Advanced intermediate pianists ready to move beyond the well-worn Scarlatti sonatas and serious students preparing for music theory, history, or performance studies. This volume works equally well for independent learners and as a teaching text in university keyboard curricula.

• Study the hand-crossing passages as compositional statements, not obstacles. Scarlatti uses crossing and spacing to create textural layers; resist the urge to "fix" the writing for modern hands.
• Pay attention to the original clef indications and how they shape phrasing. The editorial notes clarify when inversions occur; understanding the source preserves authentic articulation patterns.
• Treat repeated sections not as literal repeats but as opportunities for ornamentation and re-voicing that reflect period practice and your own musical voice.
• Balance rhythmic drive with harmonic clarity in fast movements. These sonatas demand both propulsive energy and transparent voice-leading.

Scarlatti sonatas from this volume work beautifully in sonata recitals paired with later Classical works, allowing audiences to hear how form and rhetoric evolved. They also shine as study pieces throughout the academic year, building technique and interpretive confidence in parallel with more canonical repertoire.

• Hand crossing and register shifts across the full keyboard
• Period ornamentation and stylistic understanding of the galant idiom
• Reading and interpreting Urtext editions with editorial apparatus
• Harmonic analysis of tonal structures that anticipate later sonata form
• Voicing and clarity in rapid passagework with multiple textural layers