Czerny: The Romantic

Active in every genre other than opera, Carl Czerny is largely remembered for the numerous piano studies he wrote as pedagogical aids. Howard Shelley's advocacy of his three overlooked virtuoso works for piano and orchestra is a welcome reminder of this composer's greater appeal. Alongside the Piano Concerto in A minor Op.214 are two premiere recordings of his Piano Concerto in F major Op.28 and Rondo Brillant in B flat major Op.233.

Active in every genre other than opera, Carl Czerny is largely remembered for the numerous piano studies he wrote as pedagogical aids. Howard Shelley's advocacy of his three overlooked virtuoso works for piano and orchestra is a welcome reminder of this composer's greater appeal. Alongside the Piano Concerto in A minor Op.214 are two premiere recordings of his Piano Concerto in F major Op.28 and Rondo Brillant in B flat major Op.233.

Active in every genre other than opera, Carl Czerny is largely remembered for the numerous piano studies he wrote as pedagogical aids. Howard Shelley's advocacy of his three overlooked virtuoso works for piano and orchestra is a welcome reminder of this composer's greater appeal. Alongside the Piano Concerto in A minor Op.214 are two premiere recordings of his Piano Concerto in F major Op.28 and Rondo Brillant in B flat major Op.233.

Active in every genre other than opera, Carl Czerny is largely remembered for the numerous piano studies he wrote as pedagogical aids. Howard Shelley's advocacy of his three overlooked virtuoso works for piano and orchestra is a welcome reminder of this composer's greater appeal. Alongside the Piano Concerto in A minor Op.214 are two premiere recordings of his Piano Concerto in F major Op.28 and Rondo Brillant in B flat major Op.233.

Czerny’s name, even during his own lifetime, became known to the public more as a pedagogue than as a composer worthy of serious consideration. Little has changed up to the present day as his reputation is associated with dreadful memories of piano lessons even though his value and considerable legacy to piano teaching cannot be overestimated.

The sound of the horn epitomized stormy emotions for composers of Romantic music. Robert Schumann is said to have spoken of the horn as being the orchestra's soul. For poets, the horn's sound was a symbol of the soul's longing. For horn players, however, what was at stake for much of the Romantic period was the soul of the horn itself, for it was an instrument that faced experiment and change occasioned by new technology, notably the invention of the valve. This recording explores and illustrates this important era in the evolution of the horn.

The Polish pianist Halina Czerny-Stefanska (1922 - 1982) enjoyed a more substantial reputation among piano buffs than among music-lovers in general until she was unexpectedly shot to prominence by a mistake that got her talked about all around the world. In the early 1950s she had performed the First Concerto of Chopin under Vaclav Smetacek in a recording issued by the Czech label Supraphon; when EMI reissued the performance in 1965 it was attributed to Dinu Lipatti, the Romanian pianist whose premature death in 1950 robbed classical music of one of its brightest stars.

A meticulous, focused search for sound informs the selection of pieces on this recital, a voyage through 19th-century European music, in the vehicle of the nocturne, along the route of harp transcriptions. In these works, the composers capture night as a sliver of time, evoking the intimate and introspective side of the Romantic spirit. Night is also a metaphor for transformation, from darkness to light, for transcription from one musical instrument to another.