- Born
- Died
- Carl (Karl) Czerny was born on 20th of February, 1791, in Vienna, Austria. He studied piano with his father, Wenzel Czerny, and later took lessons from Antonio Salieri and Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven was so impressed with Czerny's playing that he offered to teach him several times a week for two years. Czerny was giving concert performances as a child prodigy from the age of 9, playing a Mozart Piano Concerto in C minor and Beethoven's piano sonatas. By the age of fifteen he became a reputable music teacher himself. Czerny created his original method of piano practice, incorporating many didactic piano pieces named "Etudes", which he wrote for piano practice of his students. His method is focused on finger dexterity and velocity, as well as on the sound control and expressiveness. Many of his "Etudes" (studies) are widely used today for piano practice, especially such collections as "The School of Velocity", "The Art of Dexterity", and "Etudes for the Left Hand". Czerny became a leading performer and devoted supporter of Beethoven's piano music. He was selected by Beethoven to perform the premiere of the Piano Concerto No1 in 1806 and the Piano Concerto No 5 "The Emperor" in 1812, in Vienna, with "Ludvig van Beethoven' and the Emperor in attendance. Carl Czerny never married, and he lived alone. Being devoted to his ailing parents, he never took a concert tour. His students were such famous pianists as 'Sigismond Thalberg', Franz Liszt, and Stephen Heller. At one time in 1815, Beethoven asked Czerny to teach his nephew, Carl. In 1821 he started his two-year training course with Franz Liszt and continued correspondence with Liszt during his successful career. Czerny enjoyed a genuine respect from his famous colleagues. He shared a mutual admiration with Frédéric Chopin, who was Czerny's guest in Vienna, in 1829. Czerny died rich and famous, and left behind over one thousand original compositions and piano arrangements, of which about 860 were published. His original music is largely unheard by modern ears, with the exception of his "Etudes" and "Piano Sonatas for 4 hands", which are among the most charming pieces, that he wrote for his famous students to perform.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov
- Czerny can be considered as a father of modern piano technique for generations of pianists, when it is taken into account that many of his students, such as Theodor Leschetizky, Franz Liszt and Theodor Kullak, also became teachers and passed on his legacy.
- Czerny wrote an essay on the correct performing of the piano sonatas of Beethoven, "On the Proper performance of all Beethoven's works for piano" (1846).
- His large fortune he willed to charities (including an institution for the deaf), his housekeeper and the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna, after making provision for the performance of a Requiem mass in his memory.
- Czerny died in Vienna at the age of 66. He never married and had no near relatives.
- From Czerny's death until the end of the 20th century, negative views about his work have predominated. Robert Schumann in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Musical Gazette), said of Czerny's op. 424: "It would be difficult to find a failure of imagination greater than that of Czerny.".
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