Scarlatti Masterpieces for Solo Piano: 47 Works: Piano Book

This collection gives students access to the full range of Scarlatti's keyboard writing without requiring them to hunt through complete editions. The 47 selections here represent genuinely performable pieces at multiple levels, from early-intermediate explorations of the tarantella to virtuosic keyboard chases that demand serious technical command. Programming a Scarlatti sonata signals sophistication and period awareness in a way that few Baroque works do.

Scarlatti's sonatas crackle with energy and surprise. One moment you're navigating a lyrical Sicilienne where the harmony shifts unexpectedly beneath a folk-like melody; the next you're racing through hand-crossing passages that feel like a keyboard conversation between two dancers. There's genuine drama here, but it's intimate rather than grand.

Intermediate to advanced pianists seeking Baroque repertoire with genuine personality and variety. Teachers building a diverse solo piano curriculum will find these pieces essential for showing students how Baroque keyboard music actually sounds when it's written with wit and virtuosity.

• Approach the hand-crossing passages as athletic rather than delicate. Scarlatti writes these moments to be executed cleanly and with rhythmic precision, not apologetically.
• Shape the pastoral pieces by listening for the implied voice leading beneath the figurations. The beauty emerges when accompaniment patterns support rather than compete with the melodic gesture.
• In the tarantellas and faster works, lock in the rhythmic profile early in rehearsal. These pieces demand absolute steadiness in the accompaniment to allow the right-hand lines to sing.
• Trust the printed articulation and ornamentation. Scarlatti was specific about these details, and they define the character of each work.

Build a Baroque recital entirely from this collection and you'll have a program that moves between contrasting moods without ever feeling scattered. These pieces work equally well as opening numbers on mixed-era concerts or as components of a historical survey of keyboard style. Many of the shorter selections are ideal for student recitals where variety and technical display matter equally.

• Hand independence and crossing in baroque keyboard textures
• Baroque ornamentation conventions and their execution
• Rhythmic drive and pulse in miniature forms
• Period-appropriate articulation and phrasing
• Technical facility in rapid scalar and arpeggiated passages
• Reading and interpreting figured bass implications
• Musical characterization across contrasting dance forms and mood pieces