Scarlatti: The Complete Works, Volume X

This collection opens the full expanse of Scarlatti's keyboard invention to serious students and performers. The Kalmus Edition presentation makes these ten sonatas accessible for study and recital, spanning the range of his writing from intimate explorations to brilliant display pieces. Pianists who engage these works develop technical command and stylistic fluency that transfers directly to repertoire across multiple eras.

Scarlatti's keyboard writing sparkles with wit and technical brilliance. These sonatas move between moments of intimate harmonic exploration and passages of virtuosic exuberance, often within the same piece. The music breathes with the energy of the harpsichord while demanding the control and voicing flexibility that the modern piano affords.

This volume serves accomplished pianists preparing Baroque repertoire for recitals, competitions, or examination programs, as well as teachers assembling representative material from Scarlatti's output. It also suits advanced music history students seeking comprehensive exposure to a single composer's keyboard language across an extended compositional arc.

• Approach ornamentation as structural, not decorative. Each trill and turn shapes the harmonic rhythm and melodic contour; experiment with placement and duration to clarify the phrase architecture.
• Balance the hands carefully in rapid scalar passages. One hand often carries the melody while the other provides figuration; adjust voicing and weight so the listener hears the intended hierarchy without sacrificing evenness of technique.
• Observe the hand-crossing sections as opportunities for rhythmic precision and spatial clarity rather than technical stunts. These passages often contain crucial harmonic motion that legibility serves.
• Treat the tonal language with harmonic curiosity. Scarlatti ventures into unexpected keys and chromatic inflections; honor these moments without sentimentality, allowing the unusual harmony to register naturally within the phrase.

Feature individual Scarlatti sonatas on recital programs to represent the Baroque keyboard tradition alongside works by Bach and Handel, or program a single sonata from this collection as an opening statement that establishes both technical prowess and stylistic discernment. Teachers may also assign these sonatas as core repertoire in undergraduate keyboard sequences focused on historical style and technique.

• Rapid scalar passage work and hand independence across two staves
• Ornamentation interpretation and stylistic voicing of trills and turns
• Hand crossing execution with rhythmic precision and dynamic control
• Baroque harmonic language and unexpected tonal movements
• Voice leading clarity in two-hand keyboard writing
• Interpretive choices in the absence of dynamic markings