This B major effort was housed in the fourth Venice volume of Scarlatti's works, along with 29 other keyboard sonatas. There were 13 Venice manuscripts containing copies—not originals—of the composer's sonatas, and without them posterity would have been left with relatively few of Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas. The Sonata in B major here was probably written in the early 1750s, a time when the composer's health is believed to have been in decline. Yet its chipper character and youthful spirit would seem to suggest Scarlatti was quite capable of separating his art from his personal woes.

Marked Allegro, this Sonata in B major opens with a lively rhythm over which a joyous, quite memorable theme is presented. Although the tempo is brisk here, Scarlatti manages to impart a sense of serenity, as if the music were floating contentedly and happily amid the clouds. The second subject continues the same bright mood and adds a few deft touches to italicize the joy with deftly imagined, chirp-like trills in the upper register. As was Scarlatti's habit, the second half of the work offers development of the themes in the exposition. Here, the secondary material is given greater attention, though its music receives relatively little transformation.

© Robert Cummings, All Music Guide