CLEMENTI: 6 SONATAS, Op. 4 & 6 SONATAS, Op. 4 (formerly Op. 37 & 38) - SIDNEY FOSTER

Clementi Sonatinas Sidney Foster Liner Notes

Clementi's famous Sonatinas have nourished and delighted generations of young pianists. It is not difficult to understand why. These "little sonatas'" have a clarity of form, precision of thought, and freshness of spirit that cannot but endear them to the student. The problems they present will challenge his fingers and his mind. They make ingenious use of all the resources of the piano - scales and runs, arpeggios and trills, broken octaves and passages in thirds and sixths. Above all they are not too difficult, and serve as an ideal preparation for the easier sonatas of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. The Sonatinas are clearly the work of a gifted teacher who was genuinely sensitive to the needs of the young. Among his pupils were several who later made their mark as distinguished artists. But Clementi was equally successful in training amateur pianists; and it was with them in mind that he composed his Sonatinas. His pedagogic works have had a widespread infuence. The Gadus ad Parnassum (Step to Parnassus, 1817) consists of a superb series of one hundred studies that to this day provide a firm foundation for the art of piano playing. So exacting a judge as Beethoven preferred Clementi's Introduction to the Art of Playing the Pianoforte to all other methods for the training of the young. Beethoven's preference is all the more striking when we remember that his own pupil, Carl Czerny, was the author of a rival method.