One of my students is sitting Grade 7 piano in April/May. His List A piece is going to be Scarlatti's Sonata in C Major, K. 159, L. 104.

I am familiar with four editions of this sonata:
1) The ABRSM edition, which my student has just purchased. It contains many dynamics and articulation markings.
2) An urtext edition with no dynamics or articulation markings at all.
3) Part of an anthology; there is a modest amount of editorial details.
4) C.F.Peters edition, which is heavily edited and seems rather unreliable.

I am interested to know what you think about the ABRSM edition. The editor is Howard Ferguson, so obviously the various markings are done with care. But then I wonder about the editorial slurs and staccatos in the opening measures. When I learned this sonata many years ago, I used edition 3), which suggests playing the opening quavers detached. That seems to be the way several professional pianists play, from the recordings that I have sampled. Howard Ferguson, on the other hand, suggests slurring across the barline and across the dotted crotchet beat. While I would have no objection about this in the past, now that I am more aware of Baroque articulation from playing the organ, I am not sure if slurring across the barline is a historically accurate thing to do, especially in a lively piece like this. Also, I feel that most of the staccato notes should be played slightly detached, not as real staccato.

What is your take on this?

Unless otherwise specified (e.g. the Gershwin at grade 8) you can use any available edition. Having said that, I would be suspicious of the anthology and I wouldn't be too keen on the heavily edited Peters edition. That leaves the Urtext, which will be closer to the original, or the AB edition. Given that a - your pupil already has the AB edition and b - it's an AB exam (unless I am making an invalid assumption there), I would go with the AB edition. Whilst the articulation and dynamic markings may not be authentic, nor even seem "right", neither are they compulsory. I would treat them rather as you would fingering markings - as suggestions. Try it their way, try it your way, try it any way and then give the reading that seems to work best.

Regarding the articulation: I'm no expert on Baroque articulation. However, it strikes me that on the one hand Scarlatti is certainly Baroque, while on the other hand his work is markedly different from Bach. Therefore, articulation that might be wholly appropriate for one might be wholly inappropriate for the other. I don't know, but slurring across the bar line might be an alien technique in Bach but might an entirely authentic technique for Scarlatti.

I have an Augener edition, edited by Thomas Dunhill. It's got quite a lot of dynamic and articulation markings in. I'll try and describe the opening articulation:

First 3 quavers (G F E in right hand) , slurred with the E also having a staccato mark above it, the rest of the quavers in that bar are staccato.

What a wise choice! It is a lovely piece, and great fun to play.

Scarlatti himself left it up to the performer, so no editor is going to prescribe how I play it!

It is OK but the Urtext is better

I have just tried it both ways and I like them both! If I was presenting it in an AB exam, from an AB score I'd play it as marked up by Ferguson. If I was playing it for anyone else I'd probably go with the detached quavers most of the time, but there is no harm in varying it. (Many of Bach's compositions can also be phrased in quite different ways).

K.96/L.465 (which is on the LRSM list) opens with a broadly similar motif (in effect if not in detail) but develops in a more complex and virtuosic direction. Horowitz played the opening of K.96 with all detached notes and it is very convincing.

jm-hamilton: Thank you for sharing the detail from the Augener edition. Howard Ferguson slurs the first three notes, G-F-E, with E marked staccato. He then repeats the same articulation for the next three notes, E-D-C.

Mad Tom: Thank you for your ideas. I prefer playing the opening quavers detached (but not detached to the same degree, of course). I agree with you, however, and intend to ask my student to following Ferguson's editorial details as the piece is for an AB exam.

I should try to find out how the pianist does it on the AB recording...