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14 ALDO CICCOLINI
Mozart and Clementi: grouping these two composers together seems rather
surprising, considering the Austrian’s highly critical comments about his
colleague. Is there a certain coherency in your new recording in that both
composers, each with his own personality, prefigured Beethoven?
Aldo Ciccolini
: Absolutely. This is the rationale for associating two people who,
at least for Mozart, couldn’t stand each other (1). The dramatic dimension unites
the
Fantasy in C Minor
K.475 and the
Sonata in C Minor
K.457 – works which are often
grouped together – as well as the
Sonata in G Minor Op. 34 No.2
a quasi-tragic work
by Clementi.
When did Mozart’s
Fantasy
and
Sonata in C Minor
become part of your
repertoire?
A.C.
: I was about 60.
Late, then…
A.C.
: I’ll admit, I was highly intimidated by the
Fantasy
; the tonality is similar to
certain movements of Beethoven sonatas. The work’s intricacy is striking; it goes
through a series of dazzling
clairs-obscurs
, and then ends on a rapid scale that is like
a negation of it.