Clementi: Sonata in A Major, Op. 33 No. 1

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.

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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.

Albert Wong was aged 11 at the time of the recording in 2001.

Muzio Clementi is one of the more fascinating contemporaries of Mozart. Adopted by an English nobleman Peter Beckford – his family agreed this arrangement as it would ensure that their son’s musical talents were nurtured, (an odd decision as the education he was receiving in Rome was among the best possible!) and he would be brought up as an English gentleman.

So the young Clementi travelled from his native Rome to rural Dorset and a village called Stapleton. Beckford paid the family quarterly under 3 contracts until Clementi reached 21. In Dorset, he studied 8 hours a day Corelli, Scarlatti, Handel and Paradies, and got into the rhythm of a large country house, playing for guests, and instructing Beckwith’s daughters on the piano. The Beckwith library contained scores by J.S and C.P.E Bach, and these soon fascinated Clementi, exerting an influence on the sonatas on these discs.

Clementi moved to London in 1774, and remained there more or less for the rest of his life. At this time London Piano School was one of the most influential groups of pianists – J.B Cramer, J.L Dussek, and later Ignaz Moscheles and William Sterndale Bennett. Piano manufacturing was at its height (Clementi would one day own a piano manufacturer in London), and Broadwood in particular produced extremely powerful instruments that appealed to these composers. Clementi’s London sonatas exhibit a remarkable change in his style, especially so in the 0p.25 works – these sonatas were to influence the young Beethoven with whom he later became friends. The Op.33 set includes a work in C major that also survives as a piano concerto – one of many Clementi concertos adapted from sonatas that are sadly now lost. The Op.33 sonatas date from 1794.

No composer was more influential in establishing the dominant role of the piano in 19th century European music.

Period instrument performances on a 1798 Kirckman fortepiano.

Recording made in 2008.

Booklet essay by the artist.