Scarlatti’s over 550 sonatas are testimony to a rich musical imagination, and a commanding understanding of technical ideas that can be realised on the keyboard.

Domenico Scarlatti, son of the composer Alessandro Scarlatti, was born in 1685 in Naples and died 1757 in Madrid. In 1719 Scarlatti left for Portugal. In Lisbon he taught harpsichord to the Infanta Maria Barbara who married the Spanish Crown Prince Fernando in 1728. Scarlatti followed her to Spain where he remained for the rest of his life with the exception of a journey to Italy in 1728. His move to Portugal appears to have coincided with the development of a highly personal style of writing for harpsichord. A selection of sonatas, or Essercizi as he named these works, was first published in a collection in London in 1738. The compositional writing does display some Spanish influences, especially in some musical textures that were possibly shaped by the sound, if not the playing techniques of the guitar.