24 Sonatas (in progressive order)

By Domenico Scarlatti

This edited edition is outdated. There are many other modern editions of Scarlatti sonatas by other publishers that are well done and proper. There are problems with this edition: The engravings are hard to read, and at least two of the sonatas disagree key-wise with the corresponding Longo editions...

that are published in full online. For ex., one is K.19 in Fm, but shown in this edition with 3 flats, the forth flat being edited into the music. Maybe for easier reading, but improper. Refer to Longo online, and get modern editions. I am an advanced player and very familiar with Scarlatti sonatas.

I bought this edition because I was playing a fairly uncommon sonata in a contest and needed a hard copy of the music. The specific sonata (identified simply as "16." but revealed to be L 475 in the table of contents, oddly placed at the end of the book) differed...

quite radically from both the Longo and Kirkpatrick editions I had been using: an entire section, in which the sonata modulated to C major, perhaps 40 measures or so, had been completely expunged. I have not examined the other sonatas, but I would caution anyone from accepting this edition as definitive. Otherwise, I found this to be an acceptable edition, probably worth slightly less than what it's selling for here. The sonatas themselves are perfectly good, and the typesetting is okay, though I would agree with another reviewer that it is somewhat cramped. To conclude, this is a cheap way to get some of the less popular sonatas without buying some enormous anthology.

I'm not a scholar but I found this set of 24 sonatas by D. Scarlatti to be very approachable as an exploration of the early sonata form. The progressive order allows for growth in technique. It would seem that fascinated student would progress to the larger compilations of the...

Scarlatti Sonatas as their scholarship and interest develops. (I bought this as a replacement for a much earlier copy that had been lost and found the renewed acquaintance delightful.)

Strangely, each sonata in this edition is only denoted with an arbitrary number, 1-24. There is no mention of the actual catalog number of the sonatas except on the LAST page of the book. And even there, they use the Longo system, not the Kirkpatrick system which is more...

in favor. The spacing of the music is too cramped, and there are few fingerings given; those that are given are often strange to me and my teacher. The printing quality is vaguely poor (typical of Peters or Schirmer) and you practically need to use an anvil to break the binding so the book stays open by itself. Unfortunately, if you're looking for a single specific sonata, your choices might be limited like mine were - either this book, or an expensive volume of his "complete sonatas." That's probably the only reason to get this, if you have no alternative other than something too expensive for you. I prefer even this book to printing some random free edition off the internet.