Muzio Clementi

Franz Xaver Mozart was born just four months before the death of his father, Wolfgang Amadeus. A pianist of similarly precocious talent, he nevertheless wrote just two piano concertos: coupled with Clementi's only surviving essay in the genre, they make a sparkling addition to our Classical Piano Concerto series.

The unstoppable, 87-year-old pianist Aldo Ciccolini returns with another scintillating disc of solo piano works for the young label La Dolce Volta. Following on his first and highly-praised recording devoted to Mozart, Ciccolini pairs further recordings of Mozart with Muzio Clementi's Piano Sonata No.2, Op.34. Clementi is now known mainly for his pedagogical works, but he is a major figure in the history of music for the piano, and was greatly admired by Beethoven. Ciccolini's Mozart selections include the Piano Sonata K332 and the celebrated diptych comprising the Fantasy in C Minor K475 and the Piano Sonata in C Minor K457. Through their expressive depths and their preromantic accents, these powerful works illuminate the subtleties of the musical progression from the Classic to the Romantic.

Muzio Clementi (1752-1832), also known as "The Father of the Pianoforte" played an essential role in the development of both piano repertoire and the instrument itself. As a composer and virtuoso pianist, his sonatas spanned the transition from Scarlatti’s keyboard style to the beginnings of the Romantic period; as a publisher and manufacturer, he was responsible for a number of developments to piano performance and construction. His music is full of wit, elegance, budding romantic emotions, brilliance and a spectacular display of virtuosity. As a teacher and pianist himself Clementi developed the piano technique in a revolutionary way, paving the way for later keyboard giants Mendelssohn, Chopin and Liszt.

Muzio Clementi saw the piano evolve from relative fragility in the 18th century to its dominance at the beginning of the Romantic era his influence in developing the instruments virtuoso possibilities cannot be overstated. These works embrace this progression, illustrating Clementis earlier Classical style in the Sonata, Op. 1, No. 3, introducing more scintillating virtuosity in Op. 8, No. 2, and taking us to the dramatic final sonatas including Op. 50, No. 3, which narrates the story of Dido, Queen of Carthage.

Muzio Clementi saw the piano evolve from relative fragility in the 18th century to its dominance at the beginning of the Romantic era – his influence in developing the instrument’s virtuoso possibilities cannot be overstated. These works embrace this progression, illustrating Clementi’s earlier Classical style in the Sonata, Op. 1, No. 3, introducing more scintillating virtuosity in Op. 8, No. 2, and taking us to the dramatic final sonatas including Op. 50, No. 3, which narrates the story of Dido, Queen of Carthage.

Though Mozart was typically grudging, Beethoven had a high regard for Muzio Clementi’s compositions. A leading soloist, Clementi was pivotal to the piano’s development as a virtuoso instrument, but he was also a publisher and innovator. His sonatas combine clarity of form with moments of bravura brilliance, laced with scintillating hand-crossings and his trademark chains of thirds, on which Mozart commented. Infectiously exciting in prestissimo sections, his sonatas offer a compendium of how to exploit new advances in the development of the piano.