For the last 25 years of his life Antonio Soler occupied the distinguished positions of maestro di capilla and organist at the Escorial palace. He wrote around 150 keyboard sonatas, which remain his best known achievement, a body of music that reveals the subtle influence of Domenico Scarlatti on the Catalan composer, as well as prevailing Viennese trends. Volume eight of the complete sonatas shows Soler's cultivation of expressive melancholy in No. 77 in F sharp minor, a virtuosic use of the full range of the keyboard in No. 85 in F sharp minor and characteristically vibrant Spanish motifs is No. 86 in D major.