clementi vs mozart

Muzio Clementi (1752 - 1832) - was a celebrated composer, pianist, pedagogue,
conductor, music publisher, editor and piano manufacturer - acccording to google.

Anything you want to know about Mozart you can find out by watching Amadeus.

In the Wikipedia biography at google about Clementi I read some pretty mean
things that Mozart said about Clementi -  like how he was not really very talented.
But then Mozart is undisputably a genius when it comes to writing music so he
probably didn't really care what he said about anybody - especially when it
concerned music.

This morning I thought I would sightread - which is a strong point for me - one
of  Clementi's Sonatinas - op. 36 no.4 in FM.  Now keep in mind that a sonatina
is like a Sonata - except easier - you know on a smaller scale.

I sailed through the first movement - Con spirito - and the second movement -
Andante con espressione (this type of thing is what I'm best at) and at that point
I'm thinking piece of cake.

Wrong.

The third movement - Rondo  - subtitled Allegro vivace was more challenging for
me.

Now let me say this about things that are allegro vivace.  I was never meant to play
anything faster than andante.  But I cannot stop trying.  I want to play fast and furious.
I want to play all of Liebestraume - even the tiny notes.  But I simply can't do it without
spending a lot of time on it and at 66  I really don't have time to spare.  And anyway - I
never play anything without making mistakes - you know - killing it.


So what do I do about that?  I simply study it - and then I play fast and furious or passionate -
as best I can - and kill it.  For me that's as good as it's gonna get.  But I don't mind becuase
I can still get an idea of what the composer was trying to say.


So back to Clementi's Allegro vivace movement.  I thought - if I work on this I could
play it.





But then I thought why spend time working on Clementi when I could just as easily
kill Mozart.