clothes, placed himself at the piano, stretching out
his arms over the keyboard, so that the sleeves shrank
up nearly to the elbow, his whole figure appeared
awkward and stiff in the highest degree. But,
as soon as his touching instrumentation began, everything
else was forgotten, and one became all ear. Unfortunately
I could not express my emotion and thankfulness to
the young man otherwise than by the pressure of the
hand, for he spoke no language but his mother tongue.
Even at that time many anecdotes of the remarkable
avarice of the rich Clementi were related, which had
greatly increased in later years when I again met
him in London. It was generally reported that
Field was kept on very short allowance by his master,
and was obliged to pay for the good fortune of having
his instruction by many privations. I myself
experienced a little sample of Clementi’s truly
Italian parsimony, for one day I found teacher and
pupil with upturned sleeves, engaged at the wash-tub,
washing their stockings and other linen. They
did not suffer themselves to be disturbed, and Clementi
advised me to do the same, as washing in St. Petersburg
was not only very expensive, but the linen suffered
much from the method used in washing it.”
From the above it may be suspected that Clementi was
not only player and composer, but man of business.
He had been very successful in money-making in England
from the start, and it was not many years before he
accumulated a sufficient amount to buy an interest
in the firm of Longman & Broderip, “manufacturers
of musical instruments, and music sellers to their
majesties.” The failure of the house, by
which he sustained heavy losses, induced him to try
his hand alone at music publishing and piano-forte
manufacturing; and his great success (the firm is
still extant in the person of his partner’s son,
Mr. Col-lard) proves he was an exception to the majority
of artists, who rarely possess business talents.
Clementi met many reverses in his commercial career.
In March, 1807, the warehouses occupied by Clementi’s
new firm were destroyed by fire, entailing a loss
of about forty thousand pounds. But the man’s
courage was indomitable, and he retrieved his misfortunes
with characteristic pluck and cheerfulness. After
1810 he gave up playing in public, and devoted himself
to composing and the conduct of his piano-forte business,
which became very large and valuable. Himself
an inventor and mechanician, he made many important
improvements in the construction of the piano, some
of which have never been superseded.
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