London connection

"I just want to tell you that I came to a really satisfactory arrangement with Clementi – I shall receive £200 and besides I am privileged to sell the same works in Germany and France. He has also offered me other commissions’ Beethoven wrote to his friend Count Franz Brunsvik in May 1806. His dealings with fellow composer and pianist turned piano maker and publisher is one of the most interesting in Beethoven’s intricate ties with London. Clementi published the 4th Symphony, the op59 Quartets Violin
Concerto and commissioned the transcription of the concerto heard on this album. England was at the forefront of piano development in the early 1800s, and Clementi ‘s former pupil ‘that very clever fellow’ the composer and pianist Johann Baptist (‘Glorious’ John) Cramer was also a major figure in the development of both piano playing and instrument building in London. As a pianist, Cramer was the only contemporary Beethoven really admired – not a ‘note spinner’ as Beethoven called others. Cramer is credited with creating the nickname for Beethoven’s 5th piano concerto ‘Emperor’."