Carl Czerny (1791-1857)
- Variations on 'Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser', Op. 73 (1824)
Performers: Felicja Blumental (1908-1991, piano); Vienna Chamber Orchestra;
Hellmuth Froschauer (1933-2019, conductor)
Further info: Carl Czerny (1791-1857) - Lieder
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Austrian piano teacher, composer, pianist, theorist and historian.The
primary source of information about Czerny is his autobiographical
sketch entitled Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben (1842). Czerny, an only
child, was born in Vienna. He and his parents resided together until his
mother's death in 1827, and his father's in 1832. He never married, and
lived alone for the remainder of his life. Czerny describes his
childhood as ‘under my parents’ constant supervision… carefully isolated
from other children’. He began to study the piano with his father at an
early age, and by ten was ‘able to play cleanly and fluently nearly
everything of Mozart [and] Clementi’. His first efforts at composition
began around the age of seven. In 1799, he began to study Beethoven's
compositions, coached by Wenzel Krumpholz, a violinist in the Court
Opera orchestra, who introduced him to Beethoven when he was ten.
Beethoven indicated that he wanted to teach Czerny several times a week,
and told his father to procure C.P.E. Bach's Versuch. Czerny describes
the lessons as consisting of scales and technique at first, then
progressing through the Versuch, with the stress on legato technique
throughout. The lessons stopped around 1802, because Beethoven needed to
concentrate for longer periods of time on composition, and because
Czerny's father was unable to sacrifice his own lessons in order to take
his son to Beethoven. Czerny neverthless remained on close terms with
the composer, who asked him to proofread all his newly published works,
and entrusted him with the piano reduction of the score of Fidelio in
1805. In 1800, Czerny made his public début in the Vienna Augarten hall,
performing Mozart's C minor Concerto k491. He was renowned for his
interpretation of Beethoven's work, performing the First Concerto in C
major in 1806, and the ‘Emperor’ in 1812. Beginning in 1816 he gave
weekly programmes at his home devoted exclusively to Beethoven's piano
music, many of which were attended by the composer. Apparently he could
perform all of Beethoven's piano music from memory.
Although his playing was praised by many critics (‘uncommonly fiery’,
according to Schilling), he did not pursue a career as a performer.
Instead, he decided to concentrate on teaching and composition. He spent
a good deal of time with Clementi when the latter was in Vienna in
1810, becoming familiar with his method of teaching, which Czerny
greatly admired and incorporated into his own pedagogy. In his early
teens Czerny began to teach some of his father's students. By the age of
15, he was commanding a good price for his lessons, and had many
pupils. In 1815, Beethoven asked him to teach his nephew, Carl. As his
reputation continued to grow, he was able to command a lucrative fee,
and for the next 21 years he claims to have given 12 lessons a day, 8
a.m. to 8 p.m., until he gave up teaching entirely in 1836. In 1821, the
nine-year-old Liszt began a two-year period of study with Czerny. The
teacher noted that ‘never before had I had so eager, talented, or
industrious a student’, but lamented that Liszt had begun his performing
career too early, without proper training in composition. Czerny also
taught, among others, Döhler, Kullak, Alfred Jaëll, Thalberg, Heller,
Ninette von Bellevile-Oury and Blahetka. Around 1802, Czerny began to
copy out many J.S. Bach fugues, Scarlatti sonatas and other works by
‘ancient’ composers. He describes learning orchestration by copying the
parts from the first two Beethoven symphonies, and several Haydn and
Mozart symphonies as well. He published his first composition in 1806 at
the age of 15: a set of 20 Variations concertantes for piano and violin
op.1 on a theme by Krumpholz. Until he gave up teaching, composition
occupied ‘every free moment I had’, usually the evenings. Czerny was a
central figure in the transmission of Beethoven's legacy. Many of his
technical exercises remain an essential part of nearly every pianist's
training, but most of his compositions – in nearly every genre, sacred
and secular, with opus numbers totalling 861, and an even greater number
of works published without opus – are largely forgotten. A large number
of theoretical works are of great importance for the insight they offer
into contemporary musical genres and performance practice.
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