Horowitz Plays Clementi

Beautiful Music

This CD by maestro Horowitz features four sonatas by the prolific, underrated and, frankly, underperformed composer Muzio Clementi (1752-1832). Anyone who appreciates solo piano works will enjoy this disc. Clementi was a contemporary of Beethoven (eighteen years his senior, actually), and while I wouldn't attempt a direct comparison between the two, his piano music is consistently excellent and very rewarding indeed. The playing time on this CD is a generous 72 minutes. Those looking for more piano music by Clementi would do well to explore Pietro Spada's complete set of Clementi piano works, an 18-disc set available either individually or as two 9-disc sets, on the Arts Music label. One final note - this CD is available as an import for $11.99; far less than what it is selling for used. Type "B0000261KL" in the search field to find it. October 24, 2005

This is another disk that should NEVER be out of print

Look, Clementi is no one's idea of a great composer. And when Horowitz made these recordings NO ONE was playing Clementi sonatas. And, I guess, few are now.

But here Horowitz shows there is a great deal more to these works than anyone had supposed. Listen to the track 3 and you will find a charming piece that should be played by a lot of people. Tracks 11 & 12 are also quite wonderful. There is much worse material being heard in recitals and being learned by students.

This disk should be in print and it is a scandal that it is in limited availability. This is an historical disk for a lot of reasons. July 9, 2002

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