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Clementi has some very fine work thats a lot of fun to play, but it seems to me that he doesn't make the parts that are most fun to play/hear long enough. For example, I'm working on his Sonatina Op.36 No.1 with my piano teacher, and my favriote part to play is the 20th and 21st bars, when the right hand alternates between middle G and the G one octave up. It only lasts for 2 bars! URGH! Does anybody eles experience this kind of thing? It doesn't nessecarily have to be with Clementi, but with anything. I just tend to notice it most in Clementi, so far that is, anyway. But then again, I haven't really played a whole lot of Clementi to know for sure, but in that that I have played, it seems to be the case.

Scarlatti can be like that--he didn't always fully work out some of his most interesting ideas. Scarlatti's "sonatas" are actually in binary form, not the sonatina/sonata form that came later. His B sections are sometimes not as interesting as the A sections.

I haven't looked at many, but my impression is unlike the sonatinas, Clementi's mature sonatas often have the opposite problem of taking too much time with transitional passagework or varying themes on their recurrances.

If you like RH broken octaves, see Mozart's Sonata in C Major, K. 309, 3rd mvt.!

[ February 18, 2002: Message edited by: MacDuff ]

Hey, thats the one I am working on. My impression of Clementi's Sonatinas is that they are teaching tools that lead to the stuff that big girls and boys play, such as real Sonatas . So, IMO, Clementi throws in all sorts of techniques in short order, such as the octaves that you mention. However short the passage, the idea is probably to learn how to play them rhythmically evenly, and voice the top and bottom appropriately.

I've worked mostly on the 3d movement of Clementi Op. 36 No. 1 and have found lots of spots where I could see Clementi focusing on specific technical points: e.g.,

• Descending runs in the right hand, played in rhythm with the left triplets. Left hand written very simply, on purpose, probably. I couldn't believe that I had a problem here, but when when I started to play the run fast (say dotted quarter = 60) the right and left hands started to get out of synch.
• Repeated triplets with left thumb (on middle C).
• Repeated notes in right-hand, teaching use of 1-2-3 pattern move hand into position for next passage.
• Phrasing and more phrasing!
• Voicing.
• Observing rests, especially in left hand.

BTW, I don't presently have teacher so these opinions are my own. However, playing the Sonatinas makes me recall all sorts of technical issues from lessons long ago and pieces much harder and more frustrating such as the Beethoven Sonatas I used to struggle with. Sonatinas are so much easier to play and memorize, while at the same time working on technique. And as an added benefit they sound pretty decent, too.

BTW, jgoo, do you use any pedal? I don't as it quickly turns to mush city.

I know what you mean-- and it can happen in larger pieces as well.

I am learning Haydn Sonata HobXVI:34, and I absolutely love the first movement and third, but the 2nd movement just doesn't excite me at all... a long adagio section that just doesn't have the "zing" of the 1st and 3rd movements.

I'm not saying it's horrible, just not as fun to learn and play.

Nina