Clementi and Haydn

Muzio Clementi was one of the 18th and 19th century’s most revered musicians – a star performer, a composer admired by Czerny, Beethoven and Chopin and an astute musical businessman. However, he also had his detractors in his own time and history hasn’t been as kind to him as to the greater names of his time – Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Today his name is unfamiliar to most but it is certainly better known than the music he wrote. He was fortunate to have interactions with perhaps the world's three greatest composers, but this fortune may have also worked against him - putting him in direct competition with them. Over this week of programmes, Donald Macleod explores Clementi’s contact with the composers of his day, reassessing the life and music of the man known as the “father of the piano” in the light of these encounters.

Clementi likely first met Haydn on the same trip as his famed contest with Mozart. In Wednesday’s programme, Donald explores the periods when Clementi shared the London stage with the German composer, the mutual respect between the two, and Clementi's subsequent turn towards orchestral music.

Symphony in B flat major, Op 18 No 1 (I. Allegro Assai)
London Mozart Players
Matthias Bamert, conductor

Sonata in G minor, Op 9 No 2
Pietro Spada, piano

Overture in D Major
Symphony Orchestra of Rome
Francesco La Vecchia, conductor

Symphony No 4
Philharmonia Orchestra
Francesco d’Avalos, conductor

Produced by Sam Phillips for BBC Wales