The illustrious Scarlatti family was famed throughout Europe for forging new musical developments. Alessandro was responsible for creating a new operatic school in Naples whilst...

The illustrious Scarlatti family was famed throughout Europe for forging new musical developments. Alessandro was responsible for creating a new operatic school in Naples whilst his son Domenico devised a huge sequence of single-movement keyboard sonatas that have proved indispensable to pianists. Composed for the Spanish court, and specifically for his pupil, the Infanta Maria Barbara, the sonatas here derive from manuscripts preserved in Venice. Their virtuosity is matched by ceaseless invention in which Scarlatti sometimes evokes Iberian popular dances, all generously endowed with melodic interest and brilliance.