Howard Shelley (piano) Hyperion CDA 67819 (2 CDs for the price of 1) ***

The six sonatas in the final volume of Howard Shelley's complete survey of the piano sonatas of Muzio Clementi (1752-1832) were all published after 1800. And, as Leon Plantinga remarks in his notes, they seem "quite at home in the new century". The set includes one of the best-known of Clementi's sonatas, Didone abbandonata(Op 50 No 3), the only one with a programmatic title. There are floridly decorated melodic lines to remind one that he was the teacher of Irishman John Field. And there's the usual abundance of sturdy and stormy writing that tantalisingly suggests a more powerful message than it actually delivers. The limitation? While there's no lack of adventure and no shortage of unexpected twists and turns, Clementi's writing simply doesn't have the natural sounding, self-explanatory freedom of his greater colleagues. See url.ie/4qdb