Clementi and fortepiano: 17th – 21 September

[doversoul1]

This week Donald Macleod celebrates the life and music of Muzio Clementi, popularly known as "the father of the pianoforte". He takes a trip to Finchcocks Musical Museum in Goudhurst, Kent, to look at a unique selection of Clementi pianos and marks the contribution Clementi has made to piano literature, with works ranging from his Opus 40 and 50 piano sonatas […]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mnwzz

Note: Thursday
Sonata in F sharp minor Op.25`5 for piano [1790] Performer: Peter KATIN – Piano
ATHENE, ath-CD4, 1-13

[MickyD]

Thanks, doversoul, I would have missed this had it not been for your post. Everyone should visit Finchcocks, it is both delightful and fascinating!

[salymap]

Yes I hope doversoul knows Finchcocks Museum at Goudhurst and has visited it as I have several times years ago.
It's a wonderful place and Richard Burnett was there in those days, playing and talking. I'll never forget his playing of the Turkish piece by Mozart, what a character.

[doversoul1]

salymap
Yes, I have been to Finchcocks Museum a couple of times. A wonderful place, and Richard Burnett was on today’s programme, so that’s good news. But I found this on their website. I hope they are not in any serious financial difficulty.

Finchcocks now has an account with Ebay and we will be selling some of the interesting items from our pre-owned music collection and other musical-related gifts and products.

http://www.finchcocks.co.uk/

As for the programme, I would have liked to hear more fortepiano but other than that, it was very enjoyable.

[salymap]

salymap
Yes, I have been to Finchcocks Museum a couple of times. A wonderful place, and Richard Burnett was on today’s programme, so that’s good news. But I found this on their website. I hope they are not in any serious financial difficulty.

Finchcocks now has an account with Ebay and we will be selling some of the interesting items from our pre-owned music collection and other musical-related gifts and products.

http://www.finchcocks.co.uk/

As for the programme, I would have liked to hear more fortepiano but other than that, it was very enjoyable.

Thanks ds, I was out but must catch upwith it later. Glad RB is still there.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I had the opportunity to play on a Clementi piano recently, and the experience revived my interest in this composer who is now only well-known for his 6 Sonatinas.

The term fortepiano is a strange one, invented in recent times to distinguish it from the modern instruments

[aeolium]

I thought it was a really enjoyable programme, though like doversoul I would have liked to hear some of the music on the fortepiano. I gather that's coming in later programmes in the week.

What a strange upbringing Clementi had! I never knew he spent his formative years in Dorset playing for one of the Beckfords (though not the most eccentric of that curious family). And to go from there in a few years to duelling pianistically with Mozart before the Emperor - astonishing!

[David-G]

I enjoyed listening to this first programme, and I am looking forward to the others.

I spent a memorable day at Finchcocks in March, listening to Melvyn Tan playing Schubert as part of the Radio 3 "Schubert-Fest". I wrote about it here:

http://www.pianoworld.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1960315.html#Post1960315

[salymap]

Yes I caught up with the first programme and found Clementi's music far more varied than I had imagined, knowing little of it.
I must listen to what I can this week or record it.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Harold Truscott (IIRC) was very impressed by the Clementi Piano Sonatas, spending some time favourably discussing them in his chapter on the Beethoven Pno Sons from The Beethoven Companion.

[vinteuil]

There are now so many interesting recordings of Clementi on appropriate pianos (Susan Alexander-Max; Peter Katin; Jos van Immerseel; Andreas Staier; Costantino Mastroprimiano) - it's odd and rather depressing that so far we have mainly had modern piano versions. It was good to hear Horowitz in the F minor op 14 sonata - but Howard Shelley for me doesn't really make this music as interesting as it can be - for a modern piano version I wd have thought Maria Tipo wd be much more enlivening. Still, I think we finally get some appropriate pianos on Wed Thu Fri...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Just to say that I really enjoyed today's programme. I'm going to invest in some more Clementi sheet music as a result (to play on my inappropriate piano ).

[Hornspieler]

Just to say that I really enjoyed today's programme. I'm going to invest in some more Clementi sheet music as a result (to play on my inappropriate piano ).

A very pleasing programme, almost finished as I write. Worth catching on "Listen Again"

HS

[clive heath]

Do try and catch the Piano Sonata "Didone Abbandonata" in today's (19th) programme. It is an amazing piece, the first movement has a theme in 3/4 which on its second appearance in the recapitulation is displaced one crotchet late thus changing all the emphases of the phrasing. The third movement starts with a lovely scrunch and has hints of Tchaikovsky in the development. Lots to enjoy here.

https://www.cliveheathmusic.co.uk

[Pianorak]

Do try and catch the Piano Sonata "Didone Abbandonata" in today's (19th) programme. It is an amazing piece . . .

It is indeed.
The previous (anonymous) owner of my 1957 Henle edition pencilled in the performances s/he attended:
28.3.81 Lamar Crowson
30.1.82 Artur Balsam
24.6.85 Alan Cuckstow on 1827 Clementi Grand Piano at Ickworth Rotunda, Suffolk
27.3.87 Lamar Crowson
22.4.88 Richard Burnett (on a Forte built in 1822)

Has anyone else attended those performance by any chance?

I wonder if Clementi would have liked the sheer power of the modern Steinway, esp. in passages marked f con furia - fz con passione - ff con fuoco in the last movement.