Domenico Scarlatti is today considered as one of music history’s great piano composers, and the first-ever piano virtuoso. The present collection contains 24 sonatas from various creative periods, offering a survey of the rich and varied output of this Italian who worked at the Spanish court. Scarlatti triumphed over the heavy Baroque style with his characterful themes, natural cantabile melodies, and dance-like movements.
The performance-technical moment is a formally constitutive element within his one-movement sonatas. For the first time in the history of piano music, the interpreter must cross the hands and master wide leaps. Renowned pianist Bengt Johnsson provides information on Scarlatti’s life and career, as well as on the various sources on which this edition is based, in his preface. A few sonatas appear in print here for the first time. An additional “bon-bon” is the reprint of a preface to the edition of 30 of Scarlatti’s piano sonatas published in 1738. Absorbing reading for all who wish to acquire a deeper understanding of Scarlatti’s piano music.
G. Henle Publishers stands for Urtext sheet music of the highest quality. The Urtext editions not only provide the undistorted and authoritative musical text but are also aesthetically pleasing, optimised for practical use and extremely durable. And then there is the strong, distinctive blue profile: (almost) all of the Urtext editions are bound in the characteristic blue cardboard.
Musicians trust Henle's blue Urtext editions because they:
- provide an undistorted, reliable and authoritative musical text
- offer superb, aesthetically appealing music engraving
- are optimised for practical use (page turns, fingerings)
- are of high quality and durable (cover, paper, binding)
- contain a short preface that introduces the work (particularly useful for AMEB exams) in German, English and French, as well as explanatory footnotes for particularly interesting passages in the score
- contain a description of the sources, an evaluation of the sources, readings and a documentation of the corrections made (= "Critical Report") in German and English, and often also in French
