Stylistically and chronologically, Scarlatti was a Baroque composer, but he hardly remained within Baroque fashions. If any composer could claim to be ahead of his time, in fact, it was Scarlatti, whose music augured Romantic and even modern compositional styles. That said, this Sonata in C major never veers away from a Baroque soundworld, but structurally, its rather free-form and remote modulations ignore convention and exhibit the composer's propensity for innovation. Marked Cantabile, the sonata opens with a playful, modest theme whose jaunty but slightly hesitant manner and moderate pacing stand in stark contrast with the brilliant second subject, whose more muscular and agitated character infuse the work with a gravitas and sense of urgency. Both thematic roads are revisited and then Scarlatti develops the material, darkening it with lower sonorities and a sense of tension. The music also takes on a feeling of mystery and of greater depth in the latter half of the work. Near the end, the main theme several times repeats its opening notes, which swoop downward with a growing, ominous sense. This approximately seven-to-eight minute work quietly and playfully ends, turning away from its darker aspects.

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