Muzio Clementi: Piano Sonatas
Vladimir Horowitz, piano
RCA Victor Gold Seal GD87753
Recorded 1950, 1954, and 1979; released 1989
Approximately seventy-one minutes
Clementi’s sonatas have never lacked admirers. But Horowitz did more than most pianists to keep them in front of audiences, and this collection shows why. He plays them as music, not as a bridge between Scarlatti and Beethoven, and certainly not as a history lesson.
The program runs from the expansive Sonata quasi concerto in C Major, op. 33, no. 3, down to the brief closing rondo from the Sonata in B-flat Major, op. 47, no. 2. In between sit three of Clementi’s best minor-key sonatas: the stormy Sonata in G Minor, op. 34, no. 2; the tight, coiled Sonata in F Minor, op. 14, no. 3; and the restless Sonata in F-sharp Minor, op. 26, no. 2.
Horowitz doesn’t play scholar here. He uses the modern concert grand without apology, pulling sharp contrasts between delicacy and weight, tightening a phrase or letting it breathe when the music seems to ask for it. Sometimes Clementi’s keyboard writing starts to sound orchestral. Purists will object. Fair enough. It’s also why the recording works.
The G-minor sonata benefits most. Its opening movement carries a dark, theatrical charge; the finale moves with a nervous energy Horowitz somehow never lets curdle into mere speed. The two shorter minor-key sonatas reveal even more. Horowitz finds real weight in their slow movements, then clears Clementi’s fast passagework so easily the difficulty seems to vanish.
The C-major sonata, taped decades after the rest, shows a different Horowitz — broader, more reflective, willing to linger on a turn of phrase. The reading is personal. It never turns heavy. Clementi’s elegance holds, even blown up to concert-hall scale.
Sound quality shifts slightly across nearly thirty years of tape, but the piano stays clear throughout. The B-flat rondo, recorded in 1950, closes the disc on a note of wit rather than grandeur — a sharp little encore.
This isn’t Clementi reconstructed by the rulebook. It’s Clementi claimed by one of the century’s most stubbornly individual pianists. Horowitz treats these sonatas as living, arguable things.
Verdict: An essential Clementi recording, and a fine match of two strong-willed musicians.
