This C major effort was preserved in the 11th Venice volume (1756) of Scarlatti's keyboard sonatas. It is an unusual work in many ways, but bears the unmistakable fingerprints of this Baroque master. The Sonata brims with Spanish folk colors, the music festive and joyous from start to finish. One notices the strumming chords in the bass register in the accompaniment to the main theme, their sounds seeming to mimic a guitar. More than a few musicologists have interpreted this work as depicting a busy street scene in a Spanish city. The plentiful dissonances can be jolting at times, but always add deftly imagined color to the sonic landscape here.

Marked Allegro, this approximately four-minute work opens with a jaunty main theme that dances and twirls its way along in a celebratory, bouncy manner. Its second subject continues the colorful mood but with a more elegant gait and a more delicate sense. In the development section, which in Scarlatti sonatas typically begins at the midpoint, thematic elements are transformed, the mood becoming a bit less festive, almost turning reflective at times. The main theme, in fact, is not heard as it appeared in the exposition. The material in the latter portion of the second subject, however, is presented with relatively little change and closes out both parts of the development section.

© All Music Guide