XII sonates pour le pianoforte - Clementi, Muzio 1752-1832 (Leipzig Breitkopf & Härtel, 1803)
collection of famous sonatas
The Oeuvres Complettes collection of Clementi’s pianoforte music was published in seventeen volumes by Breitkopf & Hartel of Leipzig between 1803 and 1819. Like the Oeuvres complettes of Mozart and Haydn the same firm had begun to bring out in 1798 and 1800, it was offered on subscription terms (Prdnumeration), but the volumes were also obtainable singly. Breitkopf & Hartel were unable to secure Clementi’s cooperation in the undertaking until the almost constantly travelling composer arrived in Leipzig in June 1804. By then five volumes had already appeared, containing merely inaccurate Nachdrucke of works previously published elsewhere: these volumes, as Clementi was later to write to Breitkopf & Hartel (April 22, 1807), “really made a poor father-author blush”. Clementi spent over two months in Leipzig choosing pieces for the next volume(s), correcting and improving them, and reading the proofs.
Vol. I. July 13, 1803 (the dates of the volumes refer to their first announcements in the Intelligenz- Bldtter of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung. Such annonucements were often belated): Op. 12, nos. 1 — 4; Op. 23, nos. 1 — 3; Op. 8, nos. 1 — 3; Op. 7, nos. 1 & 3.
contains a portrait of the composer
Keywords: 18th Century (1701-1800); 19th Century (1801-1900); Sonata; Portrait; Keyboard music