Bengt Johnsson (Editor)
Detlef Kraus (Fingering)
Domenico Scarlatti is today considered as one of music history’s great piano composers, and the first piano virtuoso ever. Just like the first two volumes (HN 395 and 451) of selected keyboard sonatas, this third one contains 24 sonatas from various periods of the master’s creative life, offering an overview of the rich variety to be found in the work 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. 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.