Scarlatti Made Him Want to Quit

The English musician Thomas Rosengrave once attended an evening gathering in Italy where a quiet, unassuming young man was asked to play. Rosengrave wrote that when the young man began, he felt as if “ten hundred devils” had taken over the keyboard—he’d never heard such passages and effects.

The playing so completely outclassed him that Rosengrave said if a knife had been within reach, he would have cut off his own fingers. Humiliated, he claimed he couldn’t bring himself to touch an instrument for a month afterward.

The quiet young Italian who caused that crisis of confidence was Domenico Scarlatti.