I have been reading Muzio Clementi's sonatinas for a while now and I find them interesting, even if a bit thin compared to Mozartian harmonic research....what do you think? It would be interesting to talk about it since the continuous Clementi-Mozart dispute has always left me perplexed. Paradoxically, Clementi seems to have been more important than Mozart for certain music that will subsequently animate the scenes of the new century. Talking about it a bit wouldn't hurt.
I Clementi sonatinas are a masterpiece in my opinion. My favorite: the third one. His sonatas are even more interesting.
The Clementi-Mozart dispute is noteworthy. The most significant and mean thing Mozart could have said about Clementi: "he plays like all Italians... without feeling". This must make us think and must erase the prejudice in us that playing Mozart expressively is out of style. It certainly does not enjoy romantic expression, but it is expressive. It becomes more so as his music has evolved. The fantasy in C minor that our Simone interpreted today in his concert is an example of this maximum expression. What can be said about the rondo in A minor? Try playing the first bars!!!!!! Even the tempo can become a little flexible, especially when the Great One repeats the same rhythmic and melodic formulas in succession (fantasy, end of the second page, beginning of the andantino).
Mozart more square? More playful? More expressive? More carefree? ...Perhaps all of this but in different periods!
Personally, I believe that to interpret a piece, one must go back to when the piece was composed, and why it was composed in reference to the author's life. Every composer is first and foremost a man or a woman living their life, which obviously ranges between bad moments and good moments, problems and carefreeness. Everyone's life is made of ups and downs and composers are no exception; in fact, I believe that given their particular sensitivity, it is easier for them to express their feelings through musical language rather than spoken language, and indeed music represents for them almost a refuge in moments of discouragement and a friend who laughs with you in moments of joy. I therefore believe it is of fundamental importance to refer to these moments of the artist when studying a piece. The Fantasy K. 475 in particular is written in C minor, a key that in Mozart reflects restlessness and suffering. The restlessness is also given by the continuous changes of key and finally finds peace in a long lyrical cantabile in D major, thus becoming calm. Alternating changes of tempo continue until the finale, again in C minor where the initial theme is taken up. It all ends with a powerful C minor scale to complete the inexorability of death.
