Clementi: Sonatas Op. 1 & Op. 1A

This new recording presents the Sonatas Op. 1 and Op. 1A. The Sonatas Op. 1 all have a simple, playful and light-hearted character; they are divided into two movements and are all in the major key; the minor key is only touched upon in a few brief transitional moments. The instrumental writing is still simple, harpsichord-like, the first steps of a young and aspiring composer. Composer: Muzio Clementi Artist: Carlo Alberto Bacchi (piano) While Clementi’s sparkling music has been recorded by many celebrated pianists such as Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, few of them have paid much attention to the composer’s first published collection. This new recording by Carlo Alberto Bacchi is all the more welcome for being informed by his study of the composer’s complete oeuvre as part of the ‘Clementi Project’ which sees him performing many of the sonatas in concert as well as recording them for Piano Classics. The inscription on Clementi’s tomb in Westminster Abbey commemorates him as ‘the father of the piano’. Clementi above all was responsible for devising a modern technique, of the kind still recognisable today, which would serve pianists on the larger instruments being manufactured in the early years of the 19th century. This technique is differentiated from harpsichord technique,and trained not just through lessons but through pianistic ‘methods’ and publications such as these sets of sonatas, which are arranged in order of progressive difficulty in order to introduced...