Carl Czerny

If genius is 99 per cent perspiration, then Carl Czerny undoubtedly was one. His output was enormous, produced on an industrial scale, using conveyor-belt processes. His published works extend to Op. 861, with many numbers used more than once, plus hundreds of other works without opus numbers, some of which are most important for a proper reckoning of his output. Yet it is almost unknown apart from the volumes of studies and exercises with which he filled the page.

Czerny’s musical output was produced on an industrial scale using conveyor-belt processes

Born in Vienna the year Mozart died, Czerny got the work ethic from an early age. He was three when he started piano lessons with his church-organist, music-teacher father, seven when he began composition and nine when he made his public debut, playing Mozart’s

C minor Piano Concerto. All this time, he was one of a group of children whose parents provided a self-help