Editing Muzio Clementi (section)

===Mozart===
Clementi started a three-year European tour in 1780, traveling to Paris, France, where he performed for Queen [[Marie Antoinette]]; Munich, Germany; and [[Salzburg]], Austria. In [[Vienna]], he agreed to enter a musical contest with [[Mozart]] for the entertainment of [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II]] and his guests on 24 December 1781, at the Viennese court. The composers were called upon to improvise and to perform selections from their own compositions. The Emperor diplomatically declared a tie.

On 12 January 1782, Mozart reported to his father: "Clementi plays well, as far as execution with the right-hand goes. His greatest strength lies in his passages in 3rds. Apart from that, he has not a [[kreuzer]]'s worth of taste or feeling – in short, he is a mere mechanic." In a subsequent letter, he wrote: "Clementi is a [[charlatan]], like all Italians. He marks a piece presto but plays only allegro."

Clementi's impressions of Mozart, by contrast, were enthusiastic. Much later, the pianist [[Ludwig Berger (composer)|Ludwig Berger]] recalled him saying of Mozart: "Until then I had never heard anyone play with such spirit and grace. I was particularly overwhelmed by an adagio and by several of his extempore variations for which the Emperor had chosen the theme, and which we were to devise alternately."

Despite later attempts to portray the two as rivals, there is no evidence that their meeting was not cordial. At the time, Clementi was exploring a more virtuosic and flamboyant style, and this might explain Mozart's disparaging attitude. One of the pieces he performed was his Op. 11 [[toccata]], a display piece full of [[Third (chord)|parallel thirds]]. It would appear that Mozart's opinion might later have changed somewhat. As noted by [[Hermann Abert]] in his 1920 biography ''W. A. Mozart'', the set of variations [[Köchel catalogue|K.]] 500 of 1786 "includes a handful of novel pianistic effects that are foreign to Mozart's earlier style and that clearly reflect the influence of Clementi".<ref>[[Hermann Abert]] (1920), ''W. A. Mozart'', translated by Stewart Spencer, [[Yale University]], 2007</ref>

Mozart used the opening motif of Clementi's B-flat major sonata (Op. 24, No. 2) in his overture for ''[[The Magic Flute]]''. It was not unusual for composers to borrow from one another, and this might be considered a compliment. Though Clementi noted in subsequent publications of his sonata that it had been written ten years before Mozart's opera—presumably to make clear who was borrowing from whom—Clementi retained an admiration for Mozart, as reflected in the large number of transcriptions he made of Mozart's music, among which is a piano solo version of the ''Magic Flute'' overture.