Originally issued on Hyperion LPs in 1981.

John McCabe (1939-2015) was renowned as both a pianist (a Haydn specialist and supporter of many contemporary composers) and as a composer in his own right of very fine music in several genres. This double album was created form two vinyl LPs issued by Hyperion in 1981 and shows McCabe as a first-class interpreter of the baroque and early classical sonata styles, here brought together. Domenico Scarlatti, an exact contemporary of Handel and JS Bach though living a few years longer, is probably the most renowned and certainly the most prolific of composers of the (usually single movement) keyboard sonata, more traditionally played on harpsichord. A hundred years later, pre-eminent among others, Clementi developed the classical piano sonata, introducing sustain and other dynamic effects available to the fortepiano, being produced by his family company among others. Both sets of works also translate very well to the modern concert grand.

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REVIEW:

John McCabe plays these works on a modern concert grand piano with no detriment to the success and enjoyment of this music. The tempi of some of these sonatas were criticised in a contemporary review in The Gramophone (January 1982). I am not an authority on the performance of 18th century Italian music; all I can say is that thus music seems to me to be played with a studied balance between flair, rhythmic freedom and a characteristic attention to detail.

– MusicWeb International