Clementi: Piano Sonatas Selection, Volume II

Muzio Clementi was born four years before Mozart and outlived Beethoven by five. Thus the Italian pianist and composer helped fashion the entire Classical era in music. Following our first volume of selected piano sonatas from 1768-85, advanced pianists can become acquainted in this second volume with the unique features of eight later, harder-to-play sonatas from the second half of the composer's creative period (1790-1805). Worthy of particular mention is the concluding Sonata in A major from Clementi's last, crowning sonata collection, the opus 50. Dedicated to the congenial Luigi Cherubini, it combines poetry, deep earnestness, compositional artistry, and pianistic brilliance.