The single sonata of Opus 26, published in 1796, seems designed to appeal to amateur pianists, if rather advanced ones. The first movement begins with a theme marked dolce, but whose emphatic double-dotted rhythms suggest something more like maestoso, creating thus a precarious balance with genuinely lyrical music to follow. Clementi still seems absorbed with dotted rhythms in the rondo that follows; but this time there is nothing offered by way of contrast: they persist even in the movement’s minore episode.
from notes by Leon Plantinga © 2009
