Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum Themed Recital Sub-Forum Scarlatti Recital July 2020 Signup Thread

This recital is scheduled for July 2020. It will open for submissions July 1st, and go live July 15th. If you would like to pledge to play something, look at the post after this one.

Any piece by Domenico Scarlatti can be presented, on piano or harpsichord. Multiple submissions are fine, so that you can present a pair of sonatas (which may be what Scarlatti intended), if you wish.

A tiny bit of history
Domenico Scarlatti was born in the same year as J. S. Bach (1685). Not much is known about his early life. His father was the famous opera composer Alessandro Scarlatti. Domenico was born in Naples, but he is remembered today for the more than 500 pieces composed for the harpsichord that he wrote in Spain, where he was a court musician and teacher to Queen Maria Barbara.

He only published one volume of thirty “Essercizi per Gravicembalo” (1738) during his lifetime. The rest of his Sonatas survived in manuscript form preserved by his friends. The Sonatas are catalogued with two different sets of numbers. The older Longo system (the L numbers), and the newer Kirkpatrick system (the K numbers), and you see them referenced both ways, which can be confusing.

Some easier Scarlatti
Alfred published a volume Scarlatti - An Introduction to his Keyboard Works which contains a selection of easier works.
Jane Magrath, in her Repertoire Book, lists 38 sonatas that are used for teaching. These may be the easiest that she mentions:
Sonata in C Major K.73b, L.217
Sonata in d minor, K.32, L.423
Sonata in d minor, K.34, L.7
Sonata in F Major, K.274, L.297

Other Editions
Everybody publishes some Scarlatti. IMSLP has all the sonatas for free. Kirkpatrick, the modern Scarlatti scholar, selected 60 sonatas in two volumes by Schirmer. Maurice Hinson edited several volumes for Alfred. Part of the fun of Scarlatti is finding something that no one else has recorded or played.

Rules:
1) Only pieces written by Scarlatti.
2) All skill levels are welcome (this is the ABF!)
3) Duplicate submissions are fine - we are all unique.
4) Multiple submissions are fine - you can do a pair of sonatas (or more).

See the next post to pledge to play something!

Sam

To pledge to play something, hit the quote button of the most recent post with the list in this thread, remove the quote in brackets at the beginning and end, and write the title and your forum name of the piece you would like to play. (Every piece is by Scarlatti so no need to list the composer).

1) Sonata K402 - Sam S
2) Sonata K403 - Sam S

My favorite composer, thanks Sam! I will definitely have to submit to this one, but I will choose the sonatas later. I would like to add that imo the best urtext sheet music for all the sonatas is by Kenneth Gilbert (those are available on imslp.org in good quality scans). At the moment the official number of sonatas is 555, so there are so many to choose from. Another easy one to look at is the minuet K 40.

Are transcriptions allowed? There are some interesting ones...

To pledge to play something, hit the quote button of the most recent post with the list in this thread, remove the quote in brackets at the beginning and end, and write the title and your forum name of the piece you would like to play. (Every piece is by Scarlatti so no need to list the composer).

1) Sonata K402 - Sam S
2) Sonata K403 - Sam S
3) Sonata K87 - pianogrNW (Ellen)
4) Sonata K149 - pianogrlNW (Ellen)

To pledge to play something, hit the quote button of the most recent post with the list in this thread, remove the quote in brackets at the beginning and end, and write the title and your forum name of the piece you would like to play. (Every piece is by Scarlatti so no need to list the composer).

1) Sonata K402 - Sam S
2) Sonata K403 - Sam S
3) Sonata K87 - pianogrNW (Ellen)
4) Sonata K149 - pianogrlNW (Ellen)
5) Sonata K11 - Greta99
6) Sonata K213 - Greta99
7) Sonata K377 - Greta99

To pledge to play something, hit the quote button of the most recent post with the list in this thread, remove the quote in brackets at the beginning and end, and write the title and your forum name of the piece you would like to play. (Every piece is by Scarlatti so no need to list the composer).

1) Sonata K466 - Sam S
2) Sonata K467 - Sam S
3) Sonata K87 - pianogrNW (Ellen)
4) Sonata K149 - pianogrlNW (Ellen)
5) Sonata K11 - Greta99
6) Sonata K213 - Greta99
7) Sonata K377 - Greta99

To pledge to play something, hit the quote button of the most recent post with the list in this thread, remove the quote in brackets at the beginning and end, and write the title and your forum name of the piece you would like to play. (Every piece is by Scarlatti so no need to list the composer).

1) Sonata K466 - Sam S
2) Sonata K467 - Sam S
3) Sonata K87 - pianogrNW (Ellen)
4) Sonata K149 - pianogrlNW (Ellen)
5) Sonata K11 - Greta99
6) Sonata K213 - Greta99
7) Sonata K377 - Greta99
8) Sonata K239 - SwissMS

]To pledge to play something, hit the quote button of the most recent post with the list in this thread, remove the quote in brackets at the beginning and end, and write the title and your forum name of the piece you would like to play. (Every piece is by Scarlatti so no need to list the composer).

1) Sonata K? - Sam S
2) Sonata K? - Sam S
3) Sonata K87 - pianogrNW (Ellen)
4) Sonata K149 - pianogrlNW (Ellen)
5) Sonata K11 - Greta99
6) Sonata K213 - Greta99
7) Sonata K377 - Greta99
8) Sonata K239 - SwissMS

I keep changing my mind - so rather than take a number that someone else may want, I just put in two placeholders!

Sam

To pledge to play something, hit the quote button of the most recent post with the list in this thread, remove the quote in brackets at the beginning and end, and write the title and your forum name of the piece you would like to play. (Every piece is by Scarlatti so no need to list the composer).

1) Sonata K? - Sam S
2) Sonata K? - Sam S
3) Sonata K87 - pianogrNW (Ellen)
4) Sonata K149 - pianogrlNW (Ellen)
5) Sonata K11 - Greta99
6) Sonata K213 - Greta99
7) Sonata K377 - Greta99
8) Sonata K239 - SwissMS
9) Sonata K27 - Mati

OK, here's a bit of trivia for you. I am a bit overwhelmed by the large number of sonatas and finding something I want to invest time in. I went to ArkivMusic, which is supposed to have every current professional recording(!), and found a list of Scarlatti Sonatas and the number of times they have been recorded. I did a bit of unix text processing and came up with a list of the most often recorded sonatas. Here are the ones that have been recorded at last 10 times, in decreasing order (177 sonatas). The first number is the number of recordings. I guess it's not surprising that K380 is at the top of the list.

112 K380/L23
82 K87/L33
73 K9/L413
64 K208/L238
57 K27/L449
54 K159/L104
51 K141/L422
45 K32/L423
44 K1/L366
43 K492/L14
43 K322/L483
41 K466/L118
39 K213/L108
38 K491/L164
37 K11/L352
34 K481/L187
32 K30/L499"TheCat'sFugue"
32 K175/L429
32 K135/L224
32 K132/L457
31 K146/L349
31 K14/L387
30 K490/L206
30 K430/L463
29 K13/L486
29 K119/L415
28 K20/L375
27 K519/L475
27 K247/L256
27 K239/L281
27 K209/L428
27 K193/L142
26 K513/LS3
25 K96/L465
24 K69/L382
24 K545/L500
24 K427/L286
24 K24/L495
23 K8/L488
23 K531/L430
23 K474/L203
23 K450/L338
23 K3/L378
23 K29/L461
22 K125/L487
21 K461/L8
21 K455/L209
21 K2/L388
21 K124/L232
21 K12/L489
21 K113/L345
20 K64/L58
20 K547/LS28
20 K39/L391
20 K381/L225
20 K33/L424
20 K25/L481
20 K206/L257
19 K517/L266
19 K19/L383
19 K17/L384
18 K377/L263
18 K109/L138
17 K6/L479
17 K544/L497
17 K487/L205
17 K391/L79
17 K198/L22
17 K184/L189
16 K84/L10
16 K518/L116
16 K462/L438
16 K460/L324
16 K426/L128
16 K394/L275
16 K238/L27
16 K201/L129
16 K197/L147
16 K162/L21
16 K10/L370
15 K551/L396
15 K502/L3
15 K454/L184
15 K417/L462
15 K23/L411
15 K212/L135
15 K18/L416
14 K98/L325
14 K56/G356
14 K54/L241
14 K533/L395
14 K446/L433
14 K44/L432
14 K420/LS2
14 K386/L171
14 K28/L373
14 K260/L124
14 K22/L360
14 K215/L323
14 K214/L165
14 K202/L498
14 K127/L186
14 K105/L204
13 K478/L12
13 K443/L418
13 K429/L132
13 K402/L427
13 K319/L35
13 K308/L359
13 K211/L133
13 K133/L282
13 K115/L407
13 K11/L352
12 K77/L168
12 K7/L379
12 K58/L158
12 K525/L188
12 K523/L490
12 K52/L267
12 K516/LS12
12 K476/L340
12 K45/L265
12 K421/L252
12 K403/L470
12 K35/L386
12 K34/LS7
12 K318/L31
12 K259/L103
12 K255/L439
12 K21/L363
12 K178/L162
12 K144
12 K140/L107
12 K107/L474
12 K101/L494
11 K99/L317
11 K82/L30
11 K479/LS16
11 K467/L476
11 K435/L361
11 K434/L343
11 K431/L83
11 K4/L390
11 K288/L57
11 K284/L90
11 K283/L318
11 K26/L368
11 K234/L49
11 K216/L273
11 K118/L122
10 K72/L401
10 K61/L136
10 K55/L335
10 K546/L312
10 K515/L255
10 K501/L137
10 K5/L367
10 K470/L304
10 K468/L226
10 K46/L25
10 K445/L385
10 K432/L288
10 K425/L333
10 K406/L5
10 K396/L110
10 K384/L2
10 K366/L119
10 K365/L480
10 K278/LS15
10 K277/L183
10 K268/L41
10 K253/L320
10 K227/L347
10 K205/L523
10 K204a
10 K173/L447
10 K158/L4

Too much info?
Sam

Very interesting statistics, Sam. I think K380 was a favorite of Horowitz’s, at least, it’s on a couple of my old CDs so it’s not too surprising that is the most recorded of his sonatas. I had no idea that K87, one that I chose, was the 2nd most recorded. Scarlatti composed 550 sonatas of varying difficulty. I’m hoping some more people sign up for the recital.

Has anyone else heard every one of the 555 sonatas? I have (as a hardcore fan) and it is amazing that while there are some similarities, everyone of them is still quite individual...

The problem with recording is that his music is so unforgiving...it takes some practice to get a decent recording and it's easy to make random mistakes. But I will try to submit as many as I can. There are some lovely sonatas that have not been recorded much or only on harpsichord.

To pledge to play something, hit the quote button of the most recent post with the list in this thread, remove the quote in brackets at the beginning and end, and write the title and your forum name of the piece you would like to play. (Every piece is by Scarlatti so no need to list the composer).

1) Sonata K? - Sam S
2) Sonata K? - Sam S
3) Sonata K87 - pianogrNW (Ellen)
4) Sonata K149 - pianogrlNW (Ellen)
5) Sonata K11 - Greta99
6) Sonata K213 - Greta99
7) Sonata K377 - Greta99
8) Sonata K239 - SwissMS
9) Sonata K27 - Mati
10) Sonata K 466 - dumka1

I hope I quoted the most recent list, please double check! I don't want to mess anything up again

Looks good! I am slowly reading through the sonatas (in my abundant spare time!?!), starting with the most popular, trying to decide what to select. Its fun!

Sam

To pledge to play something, hit the quote button of the most recent post with the list in this thread, remove the quote in brackets at the beginning and end, and write the title and your forum name of the piece you would like to play. (Every piece is by Scarlatti so no need to list the composer).

1) Sonata K247 - Sam S
2) Sonata K? - Sam S
3) Sonata K87 - pianogrNW (Ellen)
4) Sonata K149 - pianogrlNW (Ellen)
5) Sonata K11 - Greta99
6) Sonata K213 - Greta99
7) Sonata K377 - Greta99
8) Sonata K239 - SwissMS
9) Sonata K27 - Mati
10) Sonata K 466 - dumka1

Sam

To pledge to play something, hit the quote button of the most recent post with the list in this thread, remove the quote in brackets at the beginning and end, and write the title and your forum name of the piece you would like to play. (Every piece is by Scarlatti so no need to list the composer).

1) Sonata K247 - Sam S
2) Sonata K531 - Sam S
3) Sonata K87 - pianogrNW (Ellen)
4) Sonata K149 - pianogrlNW (Ellen)
5) Sonata K11 - Greta99
6) Sonata K213 - Greta99
7) Sonata K377 - Greta99
8) Sonata K239 - SwissMS
9) Sonata K27 - Mati
10) Sonata K 466 - dumka1

Sam

To pledge to play something, hit the quote button of the most recent post with the list in this thread, remove the quote in brackets at the beginning and end, and write the title and your forum name of the piece you would like to play. (Every piece is by Scarlatti so no need to list the composer).

1) Sonata K247 - Sam S
2) Sonata K531 - Sam S
3) Sonata K87 - pianogrNW (Ellen)
4) Sonata K149 - pianogrlNW (Ellen)
5) Sonata K11 - Greta99
6) Sonata K213 - Greta99
7) Sonata K377 - Greta99
8) Sonata K239 - SwissMS
9) Sonata K27 - Mati
10) Sonata K 466 - dumka1
11) Sonata K322 - rwsavory
12) Sonata K380 - rwsavory

o pledge to play something, hit the quote button of the most recent post with the list in this thread, remove the quote in brackets at the beginning and end, and write the title and your forum name of the piece you would like to play. (Every piece is by Scarlatti so no need to list the composer).

1) Sonata K247 - Sam S
2) Sonata K531 - Sam S
3) Sonata K87 - pianogrNW (Ellen)
4) Sonata K149 - pianogrlNW (Ellen)
5) Sonata K11 - Greta99
6) Sonata K213 - Greta99
7) Sonata K377 - Greta99
8) Sonata K239 - SwissMS
9) Sonata K27 - Mati
10) Sonata K 466 - dumka1
11) Sonata K322 - rwsavory
12) Sonata K380 - rwsavory
13)Sonata K159 - AssociateX

To pledge to play something, hit the quote button of the most recent post with the list in this thread, remove the quote in brackets at the beginning and end, and write the title and your forum name of the piece you would like to play. (Every piece is by Scarlatti so no need to list the composer).

1) Sonata K247 - Sam S
2) Sonata K531 - Sam S
3) Sonata K87 - pianogrNW (Ellen)
4) Sonata K149 - pianogrlNW (Ellen)
5) Sonata K11 - Greta99
6) Sonata K213 - Greta99
7) Sonata K377 - Greta99
8) Sonata K239 - SwissMS
9) Sonata K27 - Mati
10) Sonata K 466 - dumka1
11) Sonata K322 - rwsavory
12) Sonata K380 - rwsavory
13)Sonata K159 - AssociateX
14) Sonata K25 - timmyab