2 Sonatas

There is far more to Scarlatti’s more than 550 keyboard sonatas than the qualities commonly associated with the term “scarlattian” – which seems to cover a range of adjectives like brilliant, lively, piquant, acrobatic, witty… But if any one of them is “sacarlattian” in that sense it is Kk No.96 in D,. From its brilliant D major hunting-horn fanfare at the beginning, its lively theme in A major with its exuberant repeated notes, its piquant chromatic harmonies, its acrobatic crossing of hands to its wittily feigned diversion to the minor before the end of each half – not mention the suggestions of Spanish    colouring – it has everything “scarlattian”.

Kk 96 in D major has little in common, however, apart from the binary structure shared by most of the sonatas, with Kk. 434 in D minor, which is in many ways its antithesis. The latter work is thoughtfully rather than physically motivated and is contrapuntal throughout. True, the fugue which seems to begin with the tenuous two notes of the opening bars doesn’t get beyond two entries but a different idea introduced in the left hand becomes the material for a variety of imitative devices. A new theme presented at the beginning of the second half survives a little longer but is similarly usurped. It is only towards the end that the opening theme, or the non-fugal part of it, is treated with due respect.