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Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas

Classical / Baroque · 1988

Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonatas

Scott Ross

스카를라티: 건반 소나타집 · 스콧 로스

Why listen

A huge recorded survey becomes approachable through the changing gestures of individual short works.

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Tracks · previews

English editorial edition

Album story

Begin with one sonata, not an obligation to finish the set. Scott Ross’s Scarlatti rewards attention to a short phrase, a pause, or the attack of a repeated note. Moving to the next work then reveals how differently a similar span of time can be organised.

The works are Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas K.1–555; Ross is the central performer in this recorded survey. Sessions took place between June 1984 and September 1985, while the original Erato thirty-four-CD collection is documented as a 1988 release. Those are different dates with different meanings. The present digital distribution divides the cycle into separate volumes, none of which should be mistaken for the entire set.

Numbers are addresses

The K. or Kk. designation identifies a work in a catalogue. It is not an instruction to hear increasing difficulty or artistic maturity as the numbers rise. A complete collection makes it possible to move beyond familiar highlights and discover less celebrated neighbours. Remember the opening and ending of one piece, then compare the placement of pauses in the next. Small observations can build an enjoyable route through a very large territory.

Hear the attack, check the forces

A harpsichord’s plucked attack invites a different kind of attention from a modern piano’s sound. Follow connections and separations between notes instead of waiting only for dramatic changes of loudness. The complete cycle is not uniformly solo harpsichord, however: organ and ensemble performances also occur. Some works occupy more than one movement track, so the number of sonatas and the number of digital tracks are not interchangeable.

A practical beginning

The verified digital programme spans twenty-seven volumes and 570 tracks, covering all 555 catalogue numbers. That is an edition check, not a listening assignment. Try K.1, then the repeated-note activity of K.141. Their common key does not make their motion identical. What matters is the chance to hear individual decisions within each small work, allowing the scale of the survey to emerge gradually from moments that remain easy to grasp.

The album through its tracks

Compare K.1 with K.141, then explore their neighbouring catalogue numbers in small groups.

  1. Keyboard Sonata in D Minor, K.1

    The first catalogue number need not sound like a grand overture to an enormous undertaking. Follow the beginnings and endings of short gestures, allowing the harpsichord’s precise attack to become familiar. Movement can emerge through the distance between notes rather than through a single sound swelling. K.1 identifies the work; it does not establish that this was Scarlatti’s first composition or Ross’s first recording session. Return to the opening after hearing the ending, then continue to K.2 and K.3 if you wish. Listening to neighbours gives the collection a more personal pace than jumping only between famous pieces. You need not name every ornament to follow a phrase’s direction.

    Reference · Apple Music: completecycle Vol1

  2. Keyboard Sonata in D Minor, K.141

    Repeated notes are more revealing when heard as phrasing than as a speed test. Notice where their accumulation seems to build tension and where the music turns towards another gesture. The harpsichord’s clearly defined attack helps make smaller groups audible within rapid movement. This work appears in digital volume seven, but its catalogue number is not its position in a flattened track list: earlier multi-movement works occupy several tracks. Check both K.141 and D minor when selecting it. Afterwards, return to K.1. The common key provides a useful point of comparison while the different kinds of motion discourage reducing Scarlatti to a single mood or keyboard trick.

    Reference · Apple Music: completecycle Vol7 includingK141

Listen next

Bach’s Orchestral Suites with Trevor Pinnock and The English Concert offer a comparison between keyboard articulation and orchestral dance.

Bach: Orchestral Suites ↗
References & editorial note

Written for English readers. Album facts are referenced below; listening suggestions are editorial interpretations. AI-assisted editorial review; not independently human-reviewed.