CELEBRATING SCARLATTI’S BIRTHDAY

Domenico Scarlatti lived in Spain so long, the Spanish began to call him “Domingo Escarlatti.” No wonder the Italian musician is so often considered a Spanish composer.

Many aspects of Spanish life can be found in the 555 sonatas for harpsichord that Scarlatti, who was born in Naples, wrote during the Iberian period of his life. Or so says harpsichordist Jennifer Paul, one of many American keyboardists celebrating the composer’s 300th birthday today.

“It’s all there--the rhythms, the songs of the common people, the climate, the countryside,” says Paul, who with another harpsichordist, Patrick Lindley, presents 30 of those 555 sonatas tonight at 8 in All Saints’ Episcopal Church, 504 N. Camden Drive, Beverly Hills.

“Like the music of Bach, Scarlatti’s works are universal. And the sonatas are without a doubt the most popular pieces ever written for the harpsichord. The first time people hear them, they go a little crazy.”

Paul says she read through all the sonatas before she chose the ones she has scheduled on this program. To add contemporaneity to the music, Paul and Lindley will play some of the pieces on two harpsichords, some on the organ, and others with synthesizer.

“Scarlatti’s music sounds good in any medium,” says the 31-year-old Boston-trained musician from Yorba Linda, who studied with, among others, Ton Koopman in Amsterdam.

Meanwhile, at UCLA, several events mark the tercentenary of the Italian composer. In the Schoenberg Hall lobby this weekend, Stephen Fry, university music librarian, has organized an exhibit called “The Scarlatti Renaissance.”

Tonight at 6, in Jan Popper Theater of Schoenberg Hall, Frederick Hammond, UCLA music professor, will talk on “Reminiscences of the Scarlatti Revival”; after that, Robert Snyder’s film about harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick (who organized and numbered the composer’s sonatas) will be shown.

Then at 8, Hammond will present a recital of Scarlatti sonatas.