Clementi: Piano Sonatas Op. 50 No. 1, Op. 41 And Op. 34 No.

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Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)Sonata in G minor, Op. 34, No. 2 Sonata in A major, Op. 50, No. 1Sonata in E flat major, Op. 41Muzio Clementi was born in Rome in 1752, the son of asilversmith. By the age of thirteen he had becomeproficient enough as a musician to be employed as anorganist at the Church of S. Lorenzo in Damaso and toattract the attention of an English visitor, PeterBeckford, cousin of William Beckford, author of theGothic novel Vathek and builder of the remarkable folly,Fonthill Abbey. Peter Beckford, as he himself claimed,bought Clementi from his father for a period of sevenyears, during which the boy lived at Beckford's estate inDorset, perfecting his ability as a keyboard player, and,presumably, his general education. In 1774 Clementimoved to London, where he began to take part inprofessional concert life as a composer and performer,playing his own sonatas, some of which were publishedat this time, and directing performances from thekeyboard at the Italian opera.Clementi's success as a performer persuaded him totravel. In 1780 he played for Queen Marie Antoinette inFrance and early in 1782 performed for her brother, theEmperor Joseph II, in Vienna. Mozart met Clementi inJanuary, when they were both summoned to play for theEmperor. Mozart had a poor opinion of Clementi'smusical taste and feeling, but grudgingly admitted histechnical ability in right-hand playing of passages inthirds, otherwise dismissing him as a mere mechanicus.It should be added that Mozart was often disparagingabout the abilities of his contemporaries, as he was ofClementi on a later occasion.In 1785 Clementi returned to England, winning areputation for himself there as a performer and teacher,although as a composer he was eclipsed in the 1790s bythe presence in London of Haydn. It was in these yearsthat he involved himself in piano manufacture and musicpublishing in London, first with Longman and Broderipand from 1798, after the firm's bankruptcy, withLongman, and others. In the earlier years of the nineteenthcentury he travelled abroad in the interests of the business,accompanied at first by his pupil John Field, who servedas a demonstrator of Clementi's wares and later left asomewhat prejudiced account of his experiences after heparted company with Clementi in Russia.From 1810 Clementi was again in England, wherehe was much respected, not least for his teachingcompositions, his Introduction to the Art of Playing thePiano Forte of 1801, revised in 1826, and the famousGradus ad Parnassum, completed and published in thelatter year. He retired from business in 1830, settlingfirst in Lichfield and then in Evesham, where he died in1832, to be buried in Westminster Abbey. His legacy topianists was a significant one, both through hiscompositions and his teaching, an introduction to a newvirtuosity and exploration of the possibilities of a newlydeveloped instrument in a society that had changedgreatly since his own childhood in Italy.The Sonata in G minor, Op. 34, No. 2