A Case for Muzio Clementi : Educational and Musical Genius

One of the first requests I got to record on my clavichord, was Clementi’s famous (or should I say infamous) Sonatina in C Major. At the time, almost four years ago, it seems as if I had ‘more important things’ to do than to play Clementi’s Sonatina in C major. The only connection I had with that piece was trough some former colleagues piano teachers. And you probably are guessing it right, that connection was not a too positive one. So why bother on that boring sonatina, huh?

A Breitkopf edition

Well, Clementi came on my radar mainly because of a 19th century print, a first volume of his sonatas (his big ones). Funny enough, the book starts with a sonata that, at first, seem to fit in perfectly with the often heard remark that his music is kind of empty, focuses on the technique only etc. Yeah, got it. But, there was a but when I first tried it on my clavichord. It felt good, it felt good in my hand, the clavichord responded well (important!) and honestly I enjoyed it so much, that I ended up playing hours in that dark red volume 1. Soon I would start to record some of these sonatas, the first one you can listen to here.

Give me more Clementi!

Diving into the history a bit of the Itialian virtuoso, I got even more fascinated. Something really astonishing to me was his date of birth : 1752. So, four years the elder of Mozart! Can you believe that? When Mozart would have died at the age Clementi had, he would have known many works by Chopin. How cool is that?

So interesting also here, as with Beethoven often, to see how we, from today’s perspective, often picture these historical figures too late in history. Clementi was over his fifties (!) when he began to make his own piano’s. And so if we today play his keyboard music on his own pianos, it might -in some cases- be a bit of an anachronism… the harpsichord, the clavichord, the very early Tafelklavier was closer to his early (pre-50!) music than we often assume today.

A dream education

Anyway, Clementi was raised in Rome, where his father, a silversmith, soon discovered the talent of his son. Muzio was given the best possible education as a musician and young composer. At the age of 14 he was discovered by Peter Beckford, a wealthy Englishman and cousin of William Beckford, twice Lord Mayor of London. For the next seven years Clementi lived, performed, and studied at the estate in Dorset, a place where he practiced the Klavier a lot with works of Bach, Händel, Scarlatti and probably many others. When he put off for his first big European tour in 1781, he probably was one of the best educated keyboard players of all, even astonishing someone like Mozart…

His first sonatas 1780

Playing the sonatas and works he took with him on that first tour will make you speechless. Certainly after realizing their date of composition. Mozart, just finished with his own first big sonatas, of which the Six Munich sonatas were already an incredible result of incorporating all possible styles in Europe with a so clear early Romantic feel, met Muzio at Christmas Eve 1781. In that so-called contest, he wrote to his father not too positively about his colleague. But to my feel, he must have been utterly impressed with the technical skills ànd the style of the compositions. As they influenced Beethoven a lot, it is not hard to see the way Mozart dealt with the encounter of Muzio Clementi. As usual, he sniffled around and brought the interesting elements to a rare level.

The Sonatinas opus 36

To end this already too long blog post: playing the sonatinas, composed much later, but in style very Mozart/Haydn like, one can only admire the way Clementi has kept to his restrictions on technique. The music is easy, on different levels, but sometimes to a degree to which it is usable very early in the course of piano teaching. And when played all of the six, the student (or the amateur and professional player as well!) will have an overview of so many different emotions, techniques, that he/she is prepared for many to come.

Boring? I can imagine when teaching the Sonatina in C major for decades and only that single first movement, that it might loose some of its freshness, of its virginity. But hardly Clementi can be blamed for that… For sure, when played within the context of the time, which means looking for micro expression rather than warp speed execution, those sonatinas opus 36 can provide pleasure and joy to students, teachers and players of all kind, for many generations to come.