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Scarlatti obviously enjoyed having the fastest fingers in Europe, and many of his works are centered upon the visual drama of his technique.
The dynamics of Scarlatti's music are produced by the pluck and dissonance of pure-sounding strings, not by the volume dynamic of the pitch-blurred modern piano.
Scarlatti's rapidly repeated notes (K.141) may be played smoothly on a harpsichord, with one finger as if they were half a trill, a technique essentially impossible on the piano.
Scarlatti was also a familiar figure at the weekly meetings of the Accademie Poetico-Musicali hosted by the indefatigable music-lover and entertainer Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, at which the finest musicians in Rome met and performed chamber music.
At the time of their meeting, in 1708, they were both twenty-three, and were prevailed upon to compete together at the instigation and under the refereeship of Ottoboni; they were adjudged equal on the harpsichord, but Handel was considered the winner on the organ.
Scarlatti accepted and in 1733 after a period in Seville (from 1729-33) he went to Madrid, where he lived until his death.
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