The Best of Czerny – Father of Piano Music (Czerny’s Real Music – Not His Excercises)
“As to Czerny, I have been appreciating the full-blooded musician in him more than the remarkable pedagogue.”
– Igor Stravinsky, 1935 (Chroniques de ma vie)
A Happy New Year to all this 2020!
Thanks to my free time, I have managed to put up a 3-hour compilation of YouTube videos which feature performances of some of the best works of Carl Czerny.
Many are familiar with Czerny’s exercise books, but rarely are his “real” music performed in concert or recorded. Czerny authored over 1,000 works, some of which contain, in themselves, dozens of pieces. His output encompassed almost every genre excluding opera – including Piano Sonatas, etudes, Piano Concerti, Symphonies, chamber works, religious works, nocturnes, opera paraphrases, etc. Of these, only a few have been recorded by famous pianists, most notably the “La Ricordanza” variations, a personal favourite of Vladimir Horowitz and recorded by him.
Known for his legendary industriousness, from birth Czerny followed a rigid training regimen under his father Wenzel, of Czech descent; “work and no play was the order of the day” (Nicholas 2017, as quoted in Hyperion Records). Soon however, he had the fortune of studying under Beethoven, Hummel, and Clementi, three of the foremost masters of the day, and went on to become perhaps Beethoven’s greatest disciple, allegedly able to play all his 32 Sonatas from memory and writing a lengthy treatise on the proper performance practice of these works.
“Czerny’s devotion to his art was total” , and “taught and composed for all the hours God gave him” (Nicholas 2017). He would teach 10 to 12 hours a day at one time, and produced some of the finest pianists of the day, including Liszt and Thalberg. He was one of the first to pioneer the piano etude, and, while often perceived as not being the most original of composers – he was sometimes criticized even during his time – his real interest seemed to lay more in teaching and promoting the works of Beethoven over his own, “eschew(ing) fashionable society” (Nicholas 2017) and, in musicologist Ferdinand Pohl’s words, being “modest and simple in his manner of life, courteous and friendly in his behaviour, just and kindly in his judgement on matters of art, and helpful to all young artists who came his way.”
Czerny never married, as was what seemed to have been a common occurrence for Austrian men at the time (due to the then financial and educational requirements for matrimony then imposed by the Catholic Church), though some letters discovered after his death reveal a possible love interest in a woman by the name of “Resi” – not much is otherwise known about his personal affairs. Upon his death, Czerny requested that a Requiem mass be performed in his memory, and donated part of his fortune to an institution for deaf-mutes. Though he had no known close relatives at the time, it is possible that descendants abound today.
I am very grateful to all those who uploaded the videos which constitute this project. Their channels are mentioned in my comment below, as well as additional details and the time-stamps in this video.
I hope you enjoy listening.
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I would very much like to extend my gratitude to the following YouTube channels who supplied these videos, and who have tirelessly made these performances
accessible to everyone on the Internet:
TheMalteseBurger – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaSKxWYDnSFkCkyWSEaNmXw
Czeyner La Mente Musical – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCJVEoWCs0yWJOWuuAXcQ5A
Gogolsuite – https://www.youtube.com/user/Gogolsuite
davidhertzberg – https://www.youtube.com/user/davidhertzberg
Stephan H – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC84dAlC7fM8Yc2ervk7qFew
deviantrake – https://www.youtube.com/user/deviantrake
Sonata – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0ub1Ik5YhYfCLpMsaKaODQ
Score’sAnimation – https://www.youtube.com/user/ScoreAnimation
Daniel Grimwood – https://www.youtube.com/user/GRIMREAPERPIANO
Daniel Blumenthal – Topic
(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZdjMZ9c5rgC95VbjRtaW-Q)
Classical Piano Rarities – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF6Emv3zMjaO1AwM1Y92XGw
Giuseppe Aresu (Gys6) – https://www.youtube.com/user/Gys6
Johann Rufinatscha – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn1lsB5GzLRj822ee8_nCXQ
atsusiueno – https://www.youtube.com/user/atsusiueno
sibarit101 – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7ojalnVGxhYFUJQNtHRuuA
Папа Ген – https://www.youtube.com/user/SuperPapagen
I have put in my comment below the time-stamps as well as the references to the images used.
