Educació musical: Horowitz and Clementi

Vladimir Horowitz, one of the most renowned pianists of the 20th century, fell in love with the music of Muzio Clementi and was one of its great defenders. Here we present an excerpt from a report produced by Cami-Video in 1993, where he talks about the importance of Clementi and how he became interested in his music.

The fragment begins with the interpretation of the third movement (Presto) of the sonata op. 25 n. 5 in F sharp minor (in the video the numbering differs from Clementi's current catalog). According to his wife, Wanda Toscanini, in Milan he acquired a whole collection of music edited by Clementi and bought it. This is how he discovered it.

Horowitz then talks to his interviewer about Clementi.

"He was a very important teacher, a great connoisseur of the keyboard and also a composer. I didn't think he was so prolific. Beethoven was influenced by Clementi's technical innovations. The instrument also helps to inspire the composer. His compositions are contemporaries of some Mozartians. " - he plays an example of the beginning of the sonata K 333 in B flat major - "Mozart usually does this, ... instead Clementi" - he plays a fragment of the sonata op 7 n. 6 in G minor, an example of a very Beethovenian amplified theme, and says - "this is Clementi; Beethoven was 7 years old when this work was written" (here he is a little wrong because the sonata is from 1782 and therefore Beethoven was 12 years old). "This is what he did, as the skeleton of what will be the future of all. Clementi is the father of modern piano, the father of pianism and, moreover, of the sonata form. That is why I am interested in his music. " “I have no commercial interest!” He adds jokingly.

Wanda ends by saying, "He fell in love with Clementi and focused on her music."