Carl Czerny

The musical metropolis Vienna has brought out numerous world-renowned composers during the classical and romantic eras. One child prodigy born in Vienna at that time was Carl Czerny (1791-1857), who grew up in a family with musical ancestors on the paternal side. In his early childhood he started playing piano, created his first compositions at the age of seven, and performed recitals in his parent's home where his talent was recognized by Beethoven. Being a member of the Viennese musical establishment, he remained almost all his life in Vienna and died there. Interestingly, Czerny had a lifelong friendship with Beethoven, and was thereby strongly musically influenced. This is noticeable, for instance, in his variations of "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" for piano and orchestra. Even though he was obviously gifted with much talent as a performer, he focused on teaching as well as composing. He is best remembered for his wide collection of piano pieces covering about a thousand works. Among them are the famous pieces "Schule der Geläufigkeit" and "Kunst der Fingerfertigkeit", which are still frequently played by piano students all around the world. However, his lifework also included a number of symphonies, concertos, sonatas and string quartets as well as religious works, such as masses and requiems. His composition "Duo Concertante", op. 129, can be heard on this year's Annual Review CD.