Estimated from our difficulty score, not taken from an exam syllabus. Checked against 333 works on the ABRSM syllabus: the exact grade is right 7 times out of 10, and within one grade 99 times out of 100.
Difficulty estimate by MusicCoach on a scale of 1 to 100.
Most works cluster between 45 and 65: a small score gap often marks a real step. The highlighted bar shows this work among those for the same instrument.
The MusicCoach difficulty measures a work's overall demands (technique, reading, stamina) on a shared 0-100 scale, consolidated from editorial and pedagogical reference points (Henle, exam syllabuses, curation) and our own analyses. It measures neither musical value nor the practice time YOU will need: two musicians of the same level can experience the same work very differently depending on their strengths (hands used to octaves, quick sight-reading…). The confidence reflects how many reference points sit behind the score and how well they agree — a lightly documented score is flagged “to validate”. For a truly personal bearing, the diagnostic and your space compare each work to YOUR estimated level, which the score alone cannot do.
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This G minor sonata feels terse and driven, with nervous, skipping figures alternating with obstinate resonant passages that call for crisp articulation and sustained rhythmic tension. On the technical side, pay attention to Connaissance des formes (3.6/5): you must shape the binary sections and repeats to produce clear contrasts and plan breaths at reprises; and to Ornaments baroque (3.1/5): the appoggiaturas and short mordents require precise finger execution and a controlled release of the wrist rather than exaggerated rubato. It belongs to Scarlatti's Baroque keyboard output, typical of his short, virtuosic sonatas written for harpsichord but commonly played on piano today, and is one of many concise pieces exploring idiomatic keyboard effects. I do not give a reference performance here because I am not fully certain of a single widely recognized recording for this specific sonata.