Background of Composition

The two sonatas, Op. 24, were first published in the series "Storace's collection of original harpsichord music," issued by Birchall & Andrews, with No. 1 appearing in 1788 and No. 2 in the following year, 1789. This collection, compiled by the Italian-British composer Stephen Storace (1762–1796), progressively published keyboard solo pieces and chamber music including keyboard instruments by many contemporary composers, including Haydn and Mozart (the term "harpsichord" here likely used as a general term for keyboard instruments). Initially, the two pieces were published in separate volumes without opus numbers, but they were first reissued as a set around 1790, at which point they were assigned the opus number 24. Incidentally, Storace's sister, Nancy Storace (1765–1817), was a soprano highly praised by Mozart, and she sang Susanna in the premiere of the opera "The Marriage of Figaro" (1786).

Regarding the composition dates, No. 2 is dated to 1781 due to an anecdote mentioned later, while for No. 1, there are two theories: one suggesting it was composed around 1781, roughly concurrent with No. 2, and another suggesting it was composed around the time of its publication in 1788.

No. 1 in F Major

General Overview

Although No. 1 does not possess strong musical characteristics compared to other Clementi works from this period, it is particularly elaborate in terms of virtuoso performance techniques, featuring fast passages, octaves, hand crossings, and the simultaneous execution of a trill and melody with one hand (though strictly notated). Furthermore, it is highly interesting that in the first movement, a fermata on a six-four chord is placed at the end of both the exposition and the recapitulation, suggesting the insertion of a cadenza.

In his youth, Clementi often placed variations on popular melodies in the final movements of his sonatas (similar examples can be found in Beethoven's Piano Trio Op. 11 "Gassenhauer," among others).The third movement of this sonata is a set of variations on "Lison dormant," a melody sung in Act 2 of the opera "Julie" (1772) by the French composer Nicolas Dezède (ca. 1740–1792), which Mozart also used as a theme for variations.