2nd volume of Czerny piano music on Toccata

[eschiss1]

A 2nd volume of piano music (this time for duet and for 2 pianos, with Jingshu Zhao (who featured in the 2019 first disc) and Haoyue Liang) by Czerny, apparently mostly premieres, is being released on Toccata Classics in June 2026.

[kolaboy]

Sometimes Czerny just hits the spot. Not everyday, perhaps, but often enough for me to add this to my collection. He - and Paer - had a huge influence on young Liszt.

[Hector]

I have just been listening to the Martin Jones recording of the sonatas, and agree sometimes Czerny is excellent. However, it is his more serious works I find emotionally and intellectually engaging, not his lighter music. There seems to be a lot of the 'Brillant'style on that Toccata Classics Cd that would not appeal to me.

[John Boyer]

[...] However, it is his more serious works I find emotionally and intellectually engaging, not his lighter music.[...]

I, too, agree with Mr. Kolaboy in that sometimes Czerny can be spot on, though I come at it from the opposite point of view from Hector. That is, I find that the serious works, the symphonies and string quartets, go nowhere. For each movement he adopts a single mood, a single tempo, and then keeps czerning out notes as if from a machine. The guy is no Beethoven, no Schubert.

It is in his more commercial music, the 'Grande Fantasie Brilliante on Themes from So-and-So's Opera "Such and Such"' sort of stuff that Czerny is truly fun.

But what do others think?

[4candles]

I'm not all that au fait with Czerny's piano music, but I would like to say I was pretty bowled over by this performance of some of Czerny's etudes by Tyler Hay from 2024. Until I've heard both releases on Toccata (which I'm sure are expounded excellently), that's about as much as I can say intelligently on the subject if I'm honest! 

[Hector]

The piano sonatas, the piano concertos in Aflat and Dminor, the G minor symphony, the piano quintet in C minor - these are the best I've heard of Czerny. I agree there can be a lack of harmonic and rhythmic contrast in some of the development sections of his 'serious' works (czerning out notes), but judging by the standards of Beethoven and Schubert means nobody else gets any prizes. I guess I'm just too grave to appreciate Grande Fantasie Brilliantes!

[semloh]

(czerning out notes)

 

[kolaboy]

Poor Czerny. Nestled between Beethoven and Liszt. You can almost hear him saying (like Abraham Mendelssohn) "Once I was the son of a father; now I'm the father of a son..."

[Martin Eastick]

Before anyone gets over-critical in general concerning the pros and cons of Czerny's abilities as a composer, may I suggest listening to his rather sublime (IMHO) "Benedicat nos Deus" Op737!

Although a relatively short work - for 4 soloists and orchestra with the bonus of an indulgent clarinet obligato, this surely is representative of Czerny at his most inspired - and certainly on a par with Schubert?

I would welcome further investigation  of Czerny's choral output without delay! Incidentally - the initial theme is a reworking of that from the first movement of his (earlier) Sonata Sentimentale Op120 for piano duet with obligato violin And cello!

[Jonathan]

I agree about the quality of some of the piano sonatas - no.9 is my favourite.  I've recently heard the first and fifth Symphonies and the concerto for 4 hands and it was all very nice to listen to but not especially groundbreaking.

I do have a soft spot for crazy virtuoso paraphrases so I'll probably buy the Toccata release (and the earlier one which somehow escaped my radar!)

[eschiss1]

As a fan of Rheinberger, Fuchs, among others, I'll put my markers on "not everything has to be groundbreaking, some things are repeatable and enjoyable"

[John Boyer]

There is one étude that stands out to me from the others in his School of Velocity, Op. 299. It's #27, in B-flat. While so many of the études in that set sound exactly like what they are -- exercises to develop skill in rapid execution -- #27 is a bit different. It's a real character piece, which, though brief (it barely reaches the one minute mark), really says something in a forward looking, Romantic way.  You can sense that Chopin's Preludes are not far off and remind us that the great Pole was not working in a vacuum.

[Ilja]

Czerny's music is rich, usually melodically inspired, and full of vigour. Yet, like John, I can't help being somewhat put off by the inconsequentiality of it all. I think it's also partly that we're not entirely able to emprace that Spohrian aestethic ideal. Compare Czerny to a contemporary like Loewe, for instance, more of a pre-romantic who injects his works with a greater sense of dynamic contrast and melodic variation, and therefore speaks much more to modern audiences. Or should, anyhow.

[Jonathan]

As a fan of Rheinberger, Fuchs, among others, I'll put my markers on "not everything has to be groundbreaking, some things are repeatable and enjoyable"

I agree!