J. S. BACH Jonathan Berkahn - Victoria University - Victoria ...

nineteenth century—the style of Hummel, Weber, and Kalkbrenner, say, as opposed to
Beethoven and Schumann; and there is a sense in which the twentieth-century
rehabilitation of Clementi’s reputation has been achieved by purging his oeuvre of
those works that most prefigure this style. Mozart’s criticisms bit deep into the public
consciousness—for many, ‘passages in thirds’ with ‘not a Kreuzer’s worth of taste or
feeling’ were all they knew about Clementi. 97 His reputation has been much better
served by emphasising the intense, pre-Romantic works that remind us of Beethoven,
and the imaginative Classical works that took their cue from Haydn (much as the
recent revival of interest in Mendelssohn has tended to bypass those features of his
music we identify as ‘Victorian’.) This juxtaposition, however, of nineteenth-century
pianism with elements of strict counterpoint—the ancient with the modern—was to
become an increasingly important part of Clementi’s later music.
If one is looking for such a thing, a ‘late style’ could be dated from the
publication of his op.40 sonatas in 1802. In 1800 Clementi’s contemporary and rival
J. L. Dussek had published three sonatas, his opp.43-45. The first two especially, in A
major and E flat major, show a significant advance on his earlier music—a new kind
of sonata for a new century? For the first time the form is expanded definitively
beyond Classical possibilities, with great swathes of doubtfully relevant keyboard
figuration, lengthy harmonic digressions, and massive preparation and reinforcement
of important tonal and thematic arrivals. The second, in E flat op.44, was dedicated to
Clementi himself; a gesture of homage? Or a challenge? If so, it was a challenge that
Clementi was quick to take up. The three sonatas he published soon afterward take a
comparably leisurely approach to the form; even movements marked ‘Allegro molto
vivace’ or ‘Presto’ (op.40/1) seem, structurally, to be in no particular hurry. These
sonatas also show an enhanced interest in canonic imitation when compared with his
97 Mozart, letters to his father, 16 January 1782 and 7 June 1783, Anderson, Mozart Letters, vol.III, pp.
1181 and 1267-8.
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