Carl Czerny (sometimes Karl; February 21, 1791 – July 15, 1857) was an Austrian pianist, composer and teacher. He is best remembered today for his books of etudes for the piano.

Czerny was born in Vienna and was first taught the piano by his father before taking lessons from Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Antonio Salieri and Ludwig van Beethoven. He was a child prodigy, making his first appearance in public in 1800 playing a Mozart piano concerto. Later, he gave the Vienna premiere of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor) in 1812.

He quickly took to teaching and by the age of fifteen, he was already a sought after instructor. He eventually instructed Franz Liszt, among many others. Liszt later dedicated his twelve Transcendental Etudes to Czerny, who was one of the first composers to use Etude ("study") for a title.

Czerny also composed a very large number of pieces, including a number of Masses and Requiems, and a large number of symphonies, concertos, sonatas and string quartets. None of these pieces are often played today, however, and he is known as a composer almost exclusively because of the large number of didactic piano pieces he wrote, many of which are still used today.

External link

• Biography by Charles K. Moss
• Piano Society.com — Czerny (A small biography and some free recordings)