Published in 1738 in the Essercizi per gravicembalo, which contained the composer's first 30 keyboard sonatas, this D minor effort is one of 15 works in that volume marked Presto. It is thus hardly surprising to observe that the work brims with energy and drive, traits typical of Scarlatti, especially in his years.

The Sonata opens with a lively theme whose busy but chipper demeanor takes on many colorful guises as the music proceeds: after the exposition, Scarlatti adds glissando-like descending scales that impart a sense of diving, or even of swooping down from the clouds above. In the end, most will hear the work as a tour de force of keyboard color and virtuosity. True, some listeners may charge that the music has an episodic feel, as one section stops and another simply starts with different material. But the thematic developments and relationships within each are relatively easy for the listener to discern, not least because of the composer's brilliant sense for thematic transformation and keyboard color. This Sonata in D minor—one of 32 in the composer's canon of 555, by the way—lasts only about two-and-a-half minutes.

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