Carl Czerny (1791-1857)
Piano Concertino in C major, Op.78 (1824)
Fantaisie et Variations brillantes sur une Romance de Blangini, Op.3 (1819)
Piano Concertino in C major, Op.650 (1841)
Rosemary Tuck (piano), English Chamber Orchestra/Richard Bonynge
rec. 2022, St Silas Church, Kentish Town, London, UK
Naxos 8.574458 [76]
This CD is the finale of a charming series of five Czerny CDs put together lovingly by Richard Bonynge and Rosemary Tuck over the last decade. All are première recordings and have band parts taken directly from Czerny’s manuscripts, which Rosemary found during her research at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and Austrian National Library in Vienna. The pieces presented here reveal the superb craftsmanship of Czerny’s orchestration and an excellent choice on which to conclude their series.
Presented to Beethoven by his organist and pianist father, Czerny, a ten-year-old child prodigy, became his pupil for a few years between 1801 and 1804. Czerny became such a proficient pianist that Beethoven invited him to give the première performance of his first Piano Concerto in 1806 when the boy was 15. Czerny later gave the first performance in Vienna of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto in 1812 when 21. Growing up in the shadow of Beethoven makes it understandable that Czerny’s compositions took on common characteristics of the master. He once got a serious reprimand when playing one of Beethoven’s works because he took the liberty of improvising rather than playing exactly what Beethoven had written. Such youthful, frivolous activity soon waned, fortunately. On this disc I even hear echoes of Mozart in the Piano Concertino, opus 78 with a nod to Rossini at the end of its second movement. I enjoyed the sedate and languid start to its Andantino where the orchestra and keyboard have a separation of ideas. The movement then opens into a contrasting section with bubbling decoration from the keyboard; the effect is glorious. The Rondo of the opus 78 has a catchy, charming theme that is particularly balletic and French in style.
Czerny was a prolific composer who wrote more than a thousand pieces, with many for piano and orchestra that only dare be tackled by a very skilled pianist. He even wrote The Art of Finger Dexterity (opus 740), to encourage more energetic playing in the concert hall. His superb scores carry multiple ideas and orchestral effects that a second hearing will always reveal extra layers of detail.
Producer, Tim Burton, with engineer, Matthew Swan, have provided a near-perfect acoustic at St Silas Church, where Tuck’s nimble playing of filigree in the upper octaves provides wonderful bell-like qualities. The strings are ideally placed in the sound field, with the top strings singing effortlessly. Richard Bonynge conducts with verve; the pace engages with the listener and helps the sumptuous melodies brim with life.
It is worth mentioning that a 2013 Tuck/Bonynge première performance has been transferred to YouTube, which was also recorded in St Silas Church where this current recording was made. The video can be viewed here. The video contains the final sections of Introduction and variations brillantes sur le Marche favori de l’Opera Gli Arabi nelle Gallie de Pacini, Op.234.
In Rosemary Tuck’s informative notes (in English) she comments that the modest Czerny was more preoccupied with promoting Beethoven’s music than his own. He gave up virtuosic performances to focus full-time on composing, hence his large output. A young Liszt later became one of his pupils and they remained friends into old age.
Raymond J Walker
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