2 Scarlatti Sonatas needed of contrasting character! Please help me pick!

[pnogirl]

I am required to do 2 sonatas of Scarlatti and I really do not know much about him or his pieces.  Please help me pick 2 songs with different moods and styles, I'm think one slower and one of medium/faster tempo.  Also, if the slow one would have a minorish/sad feel to hit and the other a bit more up beat.  I can't thank you enough for helping me!

Sincerely ,
Anne

[nick_op]

I've also recently been looking for two contrasting sonatas by Scarlatti. I'll suggest a few that I've discovered.

For slower ones my favourite is K.8 in G minor (played here by Kemal Gekic):

K.87 in B minor is great (performed by Alan Fraser):

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Of course, one can't forget Horowitz for Scarlatti. Here he is playing K.466 in F minor:

I haven't done much research into faster sonatas yet. I'd highly recommend Horowitz's CD of Scarlatti sonatas - he includes a great variety of contrasting pieces, all fantastically interpreted and brilliantly performed.

[adari]

How about K30 and K24?

[gitaristica]

I would suggest K 87 and K 519 (my favorite combination). K 466 and K 141 would work fine. K 141 is generally well recieved by the audience.

[forte88]

I'd do k 87 and k 529. The first one is a little melancholic, the second one upbeat. Neither one should be too difficult either

[elenka]

I used to play Scarlatti's Sonatas k450 in G minor, K377 and K1 D minor for those that have such brilliant character. And for a easy and chilling out one I chose K380 E major

Have a look to these if you want

[fftransform]

K 141 is generally well recieved by the audience.

It's also more difficult than most of Chopin's etudes.  Not sure it's suitable for somebody who is looking for "sad songs" by Scarlatti.

But for the sake of the other person who said they were also looking contrasting sonatas by Scarlatti, I would like to recommend just one Sonata which will contrast with nearly any other, given that it is one of his very rare and underappreciated fugues.  Here is K. 417/L. 462:

It is a very enjoyable one to play; not as finger-twisting as it sounds and the voicing is very straightforward.  Somebody else mentioned K. 450; this is another of my favorites, although as opposed to the fugue, K. 450 is actually much harder than it sounds, just as a warning.  There aren't any good recordings of 450 on piano, but here is an OK one.  It is acceptable interpretation to truncate the trills to fermati, and not play them baroque (i.e. not thirds trills, and not that I suggest doing either!), but it is still a bit wonky to play, at least for me:

And as a closing remark, it should be mentioned, just in case it isn't clear, that Scarlatti is leagues more difficult than anything Bach wrote.  Fair warning, if you're picking Scarlatti instead of Bach.

[symphonicdance]

Some other pairings for your consideration:-

Sonatas in G, K. 259 and K. 260
Sonatas in E minor K. 263 and E major K. 264
Sonatas in Bb, K. 544 and K. 545
Sonatas in G minor, K. 426 and G major, K. 427

[elenka]

There aren't any good recordings of 450 on piano

That's not true Ivo Pogorelich in my opinion recorded the best version ever of this sonata

This il the live version, but the recorded one sounds much more better

[fftransform]

That's not true Ivo Pogorelich in my opinion recorded the best version ever of this sonata

This il the live version, but the recorded one sounds much more better

I'm not familiar with a studio recording, but I'm familiar with the video you posted.  For me, it lacks any of the "Spanish flare," so to speak.  It comes across as a bit robotic, to me at least, which I would consider uncharacteristic for Pogorelich.