There seems to be little or no free recordings of this Clementi sonata, which I need to prepare for my ATCL performance exam. I would like some indication of it's length in terms of timing as there are many tempo changes in the sonata... could anyone who has played / plays this help me out here?

P.S. I was deciding between op. 40 no. 3 and this one... the simplicity of this one caught my more of my attention rather than the "fugue" structure of the op. 40 no. 3's 1st movt.

It takes most pianists somewhere between 17 and 18 minutes to play the whole sonata.

You can find all the currently available CDs at Presto Classical. At 5.99 GBP the Naxos recording is not going to break the bank

You can also download an mp3 of a 1954 recording by Artur Balsam
from Pristine Classical but at 7 Euros for just the one sonata in an inferior format you might as well wait a few more days and get one of the CDs.

Do you mean Op47 No 2 in B flat ? The op 40 ones are in G , D and D minor .

I have played this one a lot, mainly arising from the fact that my duaghter did it for Grade 8 about 13/14 yrs ago, when you still had to do a whole sonata for Grade 8 B list.

(20 mins later) Just played it (without repeats), about 16 minutes!

Good point. I just saw Op. 40 and was off ... without cross-checking the key.

OOPS I'M SO SORRY. I meant Clementi Sonata op. 40 no. 2 in B minor. It's exactly as Mad Tom thought it was. I was dead beat last night. Sorry, sorry...

Thanks for the links Tom! I'll be ordering one right now.

Well I boobed as well, I said in D for Op 40 No 2, but I was only looking at the first bar in the index and saw two #.
It is indeed in B Minor. I see what you mean about so many changes of tempo. I'll have a go at sight reading it this evening ! It doesnt look very easy !

Thanks a lot fsharpminor! You seem to be able to sight-read, perform, and memorize lots of music into your repertoire.

Actually the "preface" to this sonata (3 short paragraphs) has said that is one is not very technically demanding, especially when compared to no. 3, which has fugue forms in the 1st movt. and canon structures in the 3rd. I tried it out yesterday, but ran out of steam after 12 out of the 21 pages! Oh yeah, fsharpminor, I'm looking at the timing without any repeats. Thanks!

P.S. Lindsay Danby, the person in-charge of programme approvals, has told me that I can choose unstarred works from the additional repertoire list given for pianists for ATCL performance, besides the main syllabus. However, the trinity rep in Singapore has told me otherwise! I'm keeping the email from Ms Danby in case of a dispute, but can anyone clarify this? It's ATCL performance.

Well I had a go at it last night. Quite an interesting sonata, both from its structure, and key changes.
I played each movement at what I thought was the correct tempo, then checked it against my metronome.
I then calculated the approx time for each section:-

Molto Adagio 1 min 15 secs
Allegro con Fuoco 5 min 45 secs
Largo Mesto e Patetico 1 min 12 sec
Allegro 2 min 16 sec
Tempo Primo 52 secs
Presto 1 min 12 secs

With a few seconds break between each movement it will come at out about 12 min 40 sec in all.

"It takes most pianists somewhere between 17 and 18 minutes to play the whole sonata."
Mad Tom - earlier post.

Whoops! Wrong Sonata - that is the timing for Op 40 No. 3

Thanks a lot fsharpminor! I should be recalculating my programme then... with the Bach Prelude & Fugue BWV 851 (no. 6 book 1) and Poulenc Novelettes no. 1 & 2, it would only come up to around 22 minutes. I'll probably have to take a longer break between my pieces then. During my last diploma, I only took a 10-second break between pieces and movements. Is this usual for a pianist?

Thanks to you too MadTom!

Back in the UK for the weekend (so access to all my piano scores). I gave this piece a run through. What a GREAT piece of music. Tricky in places. Large scale so it will take a lot of work to give a good performances. But I like it. Thanks.