Muzio Clementi (1752-1832), also known as "The Father of the Pianoforte" played an essential role in the development of both piano repertoire and the instrument itself. As a composer and virtuoso pianist, his sonatas spanned the transition from Scarlatti’s keyboard style to the beginnings of the Romantic period; as a publisher and manufacturer, he was responsible for a number of developments to piano performance and construction. His music is full of wit, elegance, budding romantic emotions, brilliance and a spectacular display of virtuosity. As a teacher and pianist himself Clementi developed the piano technique in a revolutionary way, paving the way for later keyboard giants Mendelssohn, Chopin and Liszt.
Ilia Kim’s second volume of Clementi for Piano Classics juxtaposes a quartet of musical "trifles" with a trio of adventurous mid-period sonatas. In this volume, Clementi comes across in all his remarkable individuality. She opens with the F-sharp minor Sonata Op. 25 No. 5: a work stirred by strong passions, far from the polite, elegant and superficial manner with which Clementi is sometimes associated, reaching a powerful climax in its Lento e patetico slow movement. By contrast, the D major Sonata Op. 25 No. 6 is a work of Haydnesque high spirits and uncomplicated good humour, in which the chromatic harmony lending such pathos to Op. 25 No. 5 takes on an air of mischief.
The Sonata Op. 37 No. 2 was published in 1798, and belongs to the period of his maturity. The first movement is symphonic in scale and reminiscent of Haydn. The second is clearly inspired by Handel, while the lively finale is a like a dazzling finale to a comic opera. The sonata embodies and reconciles different styles, even within the first movement, where the first theme in the symphonic style alternates with the counterpoint of the second theme and the brilliant piano style of the connections and developments.
Korean pianist Ilia Kim was educated in Berlin, the Salzburg Mozarteum, Hochschule Hannover and the Imola Piano school in Italy, where she settled in 1998. She is an active concert pianist, having played at important festivals like Schleswig-Holstein, Dubrovnik and the Tiroler Festspiele. Her previous Clementi recording for Piano Classics met with great critical acclaim: “Crisp and vibrant accounts” (The Sunday Times). © Piano Classics