Northfield, the 22nd town by population (5,918 at the 2020 census) and the largest we’d played since the launch concert in the city of Burlington, has several respectable pianos to choose from. Based on the recommendation of one of Vermont’s premier pianists, Northfield resident Alison Cerutti, we settled on the United Church with its fine Baldwin grand, where our host was the enthusiastic and energetic Rev. Julie Lombard.

Though the program was all solo, I checked the “local collaborator” box by playing music of a resident composer, the remarkably prolific Dennis Báthory-Kitsz, making this the fourth concert to include music by a townie.

The Scarlatti, as often, had its rough moments, but is included above for completeness; I intend to archive all of them here. It’s always a first performance for me as I cycle through the 252 I will learn—or rather 256, as I plan to play in the four unincorporated gores and grants; still well under half of his 555 surviving keyboard sonatas. No. 18 features a catchy zigzag 16th-note figure that is treacherously inconsistent, an example of the “jesting with the art” Scarlatti advertised in the preface to the publication of the 30 Essercizi, which are the only sonatas he published in his lifetime. This turned out to be a precarious one to program only five days after the previous concerts. (More about the joys and pitfalls of posting all the Scarlattis here.)

Among the audience of thirty were Dick and Rose Colletti. They are the project’s diehards, having attended every concert thus far when they were not out of state; they eventually were at 16 of the 21 concerts in 2022.