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Topic: Best Clementi Piano Sonata?  (Read 4842 times)

Offline swilliams002

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Best Clementi Piano Sonata?
on: October 30, 2022, 03:46:45 AM
I'm curious what other Clementi-ites like me think is the greatest piano sonata that Clementi wrote. It seems that the obvious candidates may be:
     The 3 sonatas of Opus 40 (G Major, B Minor, D Major)
     The 2 sonatas of Opus 34 (C Major, G Minor)
     Op 33 in C Major ("Concerto without orchestra")
     Op. 50, No. 1 in A-flat Major
     Op. 26, No. 2 in F-sharp Minor
     There are a few other worthy candidates which I cannot recall at the moment since I'm tired and should have gone to bed three hours ago.
People often say that Op. 50, No. 3 in G Minor ("Didone Abandonata") is his best, but I just don't see it. Maybe I'm wrong, but it just doesn't strike me as that great of a work - quite the opposite actually. It's also interesting that Henle, in its 2 volumes selection of the sonatas, chose to include Op. 50 No. 1 over No. 3. I think either Opus 40 No. 1 in G Major or Opus 40 No. 2 in B Minor is his greatest. What do you all think?
"You shall seek me, and shall find me: when you shall seek me with all your heart." - Jeremias 29, 13

Offline swilliams002

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Re: Best Clementi Piano Sonata?
Reply #1 on: November 01, 2022, 12:39:14 AM
The sheer scale of his output is impressive enough: among the piano music alone Baker's lists 106 sonatas (46 of them with violin, cello or flute), and there is also a healthy quantity of smaller pieces, many of them intended for teaching, the best-known being his collection of studies entitled Gradus ad Parnassum.
I agree. I'm only wondering what other people who are familiar with his piano sonatas think is the best. I'm doing an all-Clementi recital this Spring, and though I have already selected the sonatas I will be playing (F Major sonatina, Op. 36, No. 4; F-sharp Minor, Op. 26, No. 2; B-flat, Op. 24, No. 2), I'm still curious what other people think. (I'm also playing 9 selected studies from Gradus ad Parnassum - wonderful music! - as well as a few other miscellaneous pieces)
"You shall seek me, and shall find me: when you shall seek me with all your heart." - Jeremias 29, 13

Offline thalbergmad

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Re: Best Clementi Piano Sonata?
Reply #2 on: November 16, 2022, 03:19:09 PM
The Op 40 no 2 is the one I kep going back to.
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