Clementi: Sonata in F sharp minor, Op. 25 No. 5 (aka Op. 26 No. 2)

Mozart dubbed him 'mere mechanicus' and with that musical curse, Clementi was, for long, doomed to piano student exercises and the occasional sonata movement for examinations. Yet, he had a remarkable career in London, where he settled for most of his life and was fiscally in far better shape than Mozart, with whom he once competed. One of the first pianists to change the Clementi trend was American-born Lamar Crowson, best known as pianist with The Melos Ensemble of London. In 1968 he recorded two LPs of Clementi Sonatas for L'Oiseau-Lyre and this is their first release on CD. In more recent times, several present-day pianists have championed his sonatas.

"Lamar Crowson plays splendidly. He is accurate, fleet of finger, as expressive as the music allows and always decisive ... Clementi clearly has a powerful advocate in Mr. Crowson." Gramophone.

2CDs for price of 1

Howard Shelley’s splendid series of Clementi’s complete piano sonatas continues with a fourth volume containing some of the composer’s most important works. The ten sonatas of Opp 25, 26, and 33 that Shelley performs in this recording are all products of a period in Clementi’s life when he was the darling of the London music scene, acclaimed by contemporaries in the most effusive language: ‘But the performance beyond all others to astonish, was Clementi’s concerto on the Piano Forte: what brilliancy of finger, and wonderful execution! The powers of the instrument were never called forth with superior skill, perhaps not equal’.

As well as the elements of virtuosity described above, the works recorded here—particularly the fourth and fifth of the Opp 25 sonatas—contain a high degree of compositional originality and forward-looking piano writing. The A major sonata (No 4) has a curiously nineteenth-century sound. The first movement, Maestoso e cantabile, displays a profusion of melodic ornament reminiscent of Chopin. The fifth, perhaps Clementi’s greatest sonata, was much championed by Horowitz, among others.

Originally born in Rome, Clementi made his home in England having at the age of 14, found a wealthy patron in the form of Sir Peter Beckford, who took the boy to his country estates at Fonthill Abbey. It was here that Clementi began his composing career. As well a composer he was partner in a firm of piano manufacturers and also started his own company of music publishers. Whilst in Vienna in 1781, it was Clementi who took part in the famous piano duel alongside Mozart and in the presence of Emperor Joseph II.