When his pupil, the Infanta Maria Bárbara married the heir to the Spanish throne, Domenico Scarlatti travelled with her from Lisbon to Madrid, a move that led to the completion of hundreds of single-movement sonatas or exercises (‘Essercizi’). Designed for her to play, and containing some of his greatest music, the sonatas offer a plethora of features that have ensured their lasting popularity and influence. In this volume one can encounter effortless use of repetition, imitation and arpeggio figuration, dynamic left-hand octave writing and hand crossing, some, as in the Sonata in C minor, of spectacular velocity.