San Diego Early Music Society
JORY VINIKOUR, harpsichord
Tuesday, February 17, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
All Souls’ Episcopal Church 1475 Catalina Blvd., San Diego, CA 92107
Scarlatti Sonatas PROGRAM
K1 d minor Allegro
K13 G Major Presto
K27 b minor Allegro
K32 d minor Aria (adagio)
K33 D Major (Allegrissimo)
K54 a minor Allegro
K213 d minor Andante
K120 d minor Allegrissimo
K450 g minor Allegrissimo
K517 d minor Prestissimo
K127 A flat Major Allegro
K474 E flat Major Andante e cantabile
K126 c minor (Andante con moto)
K460 C Major Allegro
K208 A Major Adagio e cantabile
K145 D Major (Allegrissimo)
K447 f sharp minor Allegro
K535 D Major Allegro
Program Notes
Lettore,
Non aspettarti, o dilettante o professore che tu sia, in questi componimenti il profondo intendimento, ma bensì lo scherzo ingegnoso dell'arte, per addestrarti alla franchezza sul gravicembalo. Né viste d'interesse, né mire d'ambizione, ma ubbidienza mossemi a pubblicarli. Forse ti saranno aggradevoli, e più allora ubidirò ad altri comandi, di compiacerti in più facile e variato stile: mostrati dunque più umano, che critico: e sì accrescerai le proprie dilettazioni. Per accennarti la disposizione delle mani, avvisoti che dalla D viene indicata la dritta e dalla M la manca. Vivi felice.
Reader,
Whether you be Dilettante or Professor, in these Compositions do not expect any profound Learning, but rather an ingenious Jesting with Art, to accommodate you to the Mastery of the Harpsichord. Neither Considerations of Interest, nor Visions of Ambition, but only Obedience moved me to publish them. Perhaps they will be agreeable to you; then all the more gladly will I obey other Commands to please you in an easier and more varied Style. Show yourself then more human than critical, and thereby increase your own Delight. To designate to you the Position of the Hands, be advised that by D is indicated the Right, and by M the Left: Fare well.
(Essercizi per gravicembalo, 1738)
Domenico Scarlatti initially followed in the footsteps of his illustrious father, Alessandro Scarlatti, composing operas, cantatas, etc. Alessandro seemed to push his prodigiously gifted son forward in his career, in a manner which easily foreshadows the relationship between Leopold and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. When Domenico entered into the service of Maria Barbara Infanta of Portugal, and then Queen of Spain in 1719, he began producing a tremendous number of (mostly) single movement keyboard sonatas. His royal pupil was known to be a prodigiously talented keyboardist in her own right, and it can be surmised that this special musical relationship must have fueled Scarlatti’s inspiration.
Charles Burney, the well-traveled English writer and composer, was a great admirer of Scarlatti’s, evoking even a “Scarlatti sect,“ indicating that Scarlatti, discrete though he appeared to be, had a devoted following. He wrote that Scarlatti was “truly inimitable . . . the only original Genius, who had no Issue; and who formed no School.”
Much of Scarlatti’s personal trajectory remains obscure. Descriptions of him are rare, but flattering from Handel’s first biographer, John Mainwaring: “(Scarlatti) had the sweetest temper, and the genteelest behaviour.” He married twice, producing a large family. But apart from Maria Barbara, he left no direct followers in his wake (very much unlike Johann Sebastian Bach, for instance), and the numerous keyboard sonatas are the greatest witness to his genius.
Extended biographies by pioneering American harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick (Domenico Scarlatti, 1953, Princeton University Press; see also Meredith Kirkpatrick’s Reflections of an American Harpsichordist: Unpublished Memoirs, Essays, and Lectures of Ralph Kirkpatrick, 2017 University of Rochester Press; and W. Dean Sutcliffe’s The Keyboard Sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti and Eighteenth-Century Musical Style, 2003, Cambridge University Press) have helped to fill in many blanks, providing a great deal of information about Scarlatti’s possible influences musically.
Scarlatti left 555 sonatas and likely a handful more, some perhaps spurious, more recently unearthed, covering a tremendous range of musical territory. Apart from a handful which are certainly intended as sonatas for a solo instrument and continuo (although always possible to perform simply at the keyboard) these are generally onemovement works, often organized by pairs, the majority appearing in well-ordered manuscript collections from Venice and Parma. The Iberian influence is nearly always tangible, and has been much discussed in several sources, including those cited above. Kirkpatrick was able to attribute a convincing and durable chronology, using numbers from 1 through 555 to label these pieces, using the “K” of his last name. Thus, the only collection of
sonatas published with Scarlatti’s participation, Essercizi per gravicembalo (London, 1738 or 1739) is labeled as K 130. Kirkpatrick published a selection of 60 sonatas for G. Schirmer in New York in 1953. He intended to edit and publish the complete set of sonatas, but his blindness made this impossible. However, he shared his work with Kenneth Gilbert, who published the 555 sonatas in eleven volumes for Le Pupitre.
The final subject to be addressed here is that of the intended instrument. We neither have the details of Scarlatti’s instruments in his possession at the time of his death, nor have we any truly reliable account of Maria Barbara’s personal collection. A tantalizing instrument, seemingly with numerous choirs of strings and innovative gadgets to operate them, built by Diego Fernandez for Maria Barbara at the behest of the great castrato Farinelli, also present at the court of Ferdinand VI and Maria Barbara, was undoubtedly seen by Scarlatti, but can hardly be said to be representative of any particular tradition of instrument building. While it is quite certain that Scarlatti was very familiar with single-keyboard Italian and Portuguese harpsichords, the range of his sonatas, several of which extend up to G6 (the fourth lager line above the treble clef), is not easily explained. Interestingly, in the Essercizi per gravicembalo, Scarlatti seems to take into account an instrument which does not extend above C6. In several instances, the writing clearly leads one to think D6 is absolutely necessary. With these questions taken into account, I have chosen a French double harpsichord inspired by 18th century models. This harpsichord was built by Curtis Berak in Los Angeles. The tonal qualities of this instrument responded to my own requirements of tonal richness, coupled with clarity.
K. 1 | The first sonata in Scarlatti’s published collection is an allegro in d minor. Presented simply and elegantly, with the imitative introduction so often found in these sonatas, this work nonetheless presents some sleight-of-hand challenges: wide leaps for the left hand, and repeated notes shared between the two notes.
K. 13 | This sonata, with the marking of presto, begins, as does the first, with imitative material alternated between the hands. Of a great rhythmic vitality, Scarlatti shows off rapidly alternating crossed hands and repeated notes.
K. 27 | This poetic and lyrical sonata begins with a brief melodic exposition, with guitar-like arpeggiated figures, alternated between the two hands prominent throughout.
K. 32 | This brief and melancholic Aria is found in Thomas Roseingrave’s published collection of sonatas, immediately following Scarlatti’s own publication. Chromaticisms in the melody lend this short piece its highly expressive quality.
K. 33 | This thrilling and brilliant sonata, immediately following K. 32 in Roseingrave’s publication, evokes Spanish dance music.
K. 54 | This graceful piece, a tarantella in 12/8, features some unusual passages, demanding considerable agility in octave-playing from the harpsichordist.
K. 213 | Intense and richly dramatic, this Andante this sonata might be described as a more tragically colored counterpart to K. 208 in A Major. Although the piece perfectly respects Scarlatti’s customary binary form, the strange modulations blur the cadential passages.
K. 120 | One of Scarlatti’s wildest creations, this sonata, marked allegrissimo, is a tarantella, seemingly designed to torment (or amuse!) the performer - and delight the listener (and observer) with endlessly creative hand-crossings in all directions, as well as double notes. At least as remarkable is the use of varying textures to create convincing dynamic contrasts.
K. 62 | An allegro in 3/8. Each half concludes with brilliant descending scales in 64th notes.
K. 87 | This extraordinary piece, evoking the highest tradition of Italian counterpoint, is one of the comparatively rare slow pieces of Scarlatti (although no tempo marking is provided). Beautifully developed thematic material, with increasingly pronounced dissonances, give this work its mournful character.
K. 96 | Unsurprisingly one of the best-known of Scarlatti’s sonatas, this allegrissimo features a veritable arsenal of color and technique - trumpet calls, rapid-fire repeated notes, athletic hand-crossing, daring dissonances.
K. 120 | One of Scarlatti’s wildest creations, this sonata, marked allegrissimo, is a tarantella, seemingly designed to torment (or amuse!) the performer and delight the listener (and observer) with endlessly creative hand-crossings in all directions, as well as double notes. At least as remarkable is the use of varying textures to create convincing dynamic contrasts.
K. 450 | English harpsichordist Jane Clark describes this piece as a “tango gitano,” and Scarlatti scholar W. Dean Stucliffe qualifies this piece as one of the most overtly clear dance movements in Scarlatti’s opus. Certainly, the dance-like ambiance, with the implication of tambourines and other instruments is very vivid.
K. 517 | A brilliant prestissimo, this sonata, a real moto perpetuo, exploits well-conceived canonic passages, which give way to virtuosic passage work, and even batteries - a bit reminiscent of Rameau’s Les Cyclopes.
K. 127 | Brilliant and gallant, this sonata has elements of dance, certainly, but also of orchestral style writing, with tutti and soli.
K. 474 | This exquisite sonata, marked Andante è cantabile, is rich in development and creativity. The opening two measures seem to indicate the simplest of imitative material, but this soon gives way to a profoundly expressive and varied cantilena, rhapsodic in its mood.
K. 126 | This exquisite sonata, without tempo indication, alternates expressive melodic sequences with gracefully falling arpeggi, alternated between the hands.
K. 460 | Ralph Kirkpatrick considers this sonata worthy of special attention, saying that it is “one of the most highly extended and highly organized of the Scarlatti sonatas, and rich not only in thematic material beyond the usual maximum content preceding the Crux of the first half, but also rich in inner restatement.” The piece is richly developed, making use of striking modulations to create stunning effect.
K. 208 | Of this sublime piece, Ralph Kirkpatrick says, “Perhaps (this) is Scarlatti’s impression of the vocal arabesques spun over random guitar chords in long arcades of extended breath, such as are still to be heard among the gypsies of southern Spain. This is courtly flamenco music, rendered elegant and suitable for the confines of the royal palace, as were its players and singers when Goya brought them into his tapestry cartoons a few years later.” As much as the piece evokes this Goyaesque background, it is also a perfect Italianate cantilena, with its syncopations and expressive chromatic melodic elements.
K. 145 | This surprising and characterful sonata, without tempo indication (but undoubtedly allegro or allegrissimo) is one of the rare sonatas to appear in neither the Venice nor the Parma collections, but as part of a group of 24 sonatas in the Fitzwilliam collection. Lively, and making use of a number of keyboard tricks, particularly rapid hand crossings, which in turn recall such devices in Wilhelm Friedemann Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto in D Major. Each section ends with a cascade of arpeggiated figuration, ending in a rather startling open chord (D-G-AD), with no third.
K. 447 | Powerful and orchestral in texture, this sonata seems to push the dramatic and dynamic limits of the harpsichord. The striking character of f# minor, rarely encountered, as well as certain technical challenges, namely rapid double thirds in the right hand, call to mind Muzio Clementi’s sonata in this same key, from 1790.
K. 535 | This Allegro, virtuosic and flamboyant, alternates descending cascading arpeggiated figures with rather exotic ascending scales.
