Czerny: Der Pianist im klassischen Style, Op. 856, 48 Preludes & Fugues Emanuele Delucchi 

• Carl Czerny (1791 - 1857):
• 1 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: I. Prelude in C Major. Allegretto 02:31
• 2 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: II. Fugue in C Major. Allegro Moderato E Maestoso 02:59
• 3 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: III. Prelude in A Minor. Allegro Animato 01:17
• 4 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: IV. Fugue in A Minor. Allegro Moderato 04:20
• 5 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: V. Prelude in F Major. Andante Cantabile 02:23
• 6 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: VI. Fugue in F Major. Allegro 03:01
• 7 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: VII. Prelude in D Minor. Allegro Agitato 02:07
• 8 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: VIII. Fugue in D Minor. Andante Con Moto 03:30
• 9 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: IX. Prelude in B-Flat Major. Andante Tranquillo 02:32
• 10 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: X. Fugue in B-Flat Major. Allegro Con Spirito 03:49
• 11 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XI. Prelude in G Minor. Allegro Serioso 02:00
• 12 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XII. Fugue in G Minor. Moderato 04:33
• 13 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XIII. Prelude in E-Flat Major. Andante Moderato 02:13
• 14 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XIV. Fugue in E-Flat Major. Allegro 02:52
• 15 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XV. Prelude in C Minor. Vivace Affettuoso 01:33
• 16 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XVI. Fugue in C Minor. Andante Serioso, Ma Con Moto 04:25
• 17 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XVII. Prelude in A-Flat Major. Allegretto Espressivo E Cantabile 01:56
• 18 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XVIII. Fugue in A-Flat Major. Allegro Risoluto 02:33
• 19 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XIX. Prelude in F Minor. Molto Allegro E Agitato 01:50
• 20 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XX. Fugue in F Minor. Lento Moderato Ed Espressivo 04:42
• 21 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXI. Prelude in D-Flat Major. Allegro Moderato E Tranquillo 02:18
• 22 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXII. Fugue in D-Flat Major. Allegro Commodo 02:35
• 23 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXIII. Prelude in B-Flat Minor. Andante Sostenuto Con Espressione 02:53
• 24 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXIV. Fugue in B-Flat Minor. Andante Cantabile, Mesto Ed Espressivo 04:48
• 25 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXV. Prelude in G-Flat Major. Allegro Con Fuoco 01:29
• 26 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXVI. Fugue in G-Flat Major. Allegro Vivace Giocoso 02:32
• 27 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXVII. Prelude in E-Flat Minor. Allegro Vivace 01:17
• 28 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXVIII. Fugue in E-Flat Minor. Allegro Moderato Ma Energico 03:14
• 29 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXIX. Prelude in B Major. Allegro Vivace 01:59
• 30 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXX. Fugue in B Major. Moderato E Maestoso 04:01
• 31 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXXI. Prelude in G-Sharp Minor. Adagio Melancolico 02:31
• 32 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXXII. Fugue in A-Flat Minor. Allegro Veloce 03:28
• 33 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXXIII. Prelude in E Major. Andante Sostenuto Cantando 01:54
• 34 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXXIV. Fugue in E Major. Molto Vivace E Con Allegrezza 02:39
• 35 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXXV. Prelude in C-Sharp Minor. Allegro Vivace Affettuoso 02:27
• 36 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXXVI. Fugue in C-Sharp Minor. Andante Serioso 04:25
• 37 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXXVII. Prelude in A Major. Allegro Commodo Vivace 01:44
• 38 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXXVIII. Fugue in A Major. Allegro Risoluto 02:17
• 39 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XXXIX. Prelude in F-Sharp Minor. Allegro 01:27
• 40 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XL. Fugue in F-Sharp Minor. Allegro Vivace 02:09
• 41 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XLI. Prelude in D Major. Andante Serioso 02:42
• 42 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XLII. Fugue in D Major. Allegro Risoluto Ed Energico 03:22
• 43 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XLIII. Prelude in B Minor. Allegretto Affettuoso 01:36
• 44 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XLIV. Fugue in B Minor. Andante Cantabile, Poco Moto 03:53
• 45 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XLV. Prelude in G Major. Moderato 01:48
• 46 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XLVI. Fugue in G Major. Allegro Commodo Ma Deciso 03:36
• 47 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XLVII. Prelude in E Minor. Allegro Vivace 02:11
• 48 Czerny: Der Pianist Im Klassischen Style, Op. 856: XLVIII. Fugue in E Minor. Lento Espressivo 04:35
• Total Runtime 02:12:56

Info for Czerny: Der Pianist im klassischen Style, Op. 856, 48 Preludes & Fugues

A little-known ‘Well-Tempered Clavier’ for the 19th century in a superbly engineered new version.

Long known as Beethoven’s pupil, Liszt’s teacher and the bane of countless piano students ever since as the prolific author of exercises and studies which have won foundational status in their importance for piano technique, Carl Czerny (1791-1858) is finally gaining recognition as a composer in his own right. During the 19th century, while his pupils were still alive to play them, his concertos still enjoyed a measure of familiarity and success, but Czerny’s sheer industry obscured his creative achievements: where should a listener start with a catalogue of opus numbers into the four figures?

The 48 Preludes and Fugues in the present collection are as good a place to start as any, especially for anyone familiar with their obvious inspiration in the Old Testament of contrapuntal technique assembled by Bach across two volumes of The Well-Tempered Clavier. Czerny would hardly claim to live up to the Leipzig master’s probing depths of expression or originality of melodic inspiration, but his set nonetheless boasts pleasures of its own, starting with the C major Prelude which puts a rhapsodic gloss on Bach’s immortal introduction. And as early as the A minor Fugue we find a subject of notable individuality as well as the craft on Czerny’s part to carry off a five-minute fugue of many grave beauties. There are more contemporary contrapuntal devices on show, too, such as the interludes of the fugues in Nos. 14 and 22. Overall the composer takes pains to integrate the principles of High-Baroque counterpoint with the ‘galant’ style that preceded the Biedermeier in the early decades of the 19th century, making this a collection at once in and outside its time.

In 2017 Emanuele Delucchi gave the first known performance of Czerny’s Op.856 in modern times, and this is only the second recording. Born in 1987 and based in Milan, he specialises in the super-virtuoso repertoire of the late-19th century, recording much-admired albums of music by Alkan, Godowsky and d’Albert. This is his fifth album for Piano Classics.

Carl Czerny, a famous pianist and teacher, student of Beethoven, wrote an immense oeuvre for the piano, in which his prodigious technique could be shown to the greatest advantage. His many didactical works, the Etudes, are daily fare for every aspiring young pianist, cruel but nourishing!

Czerny’s Op.856 contains 48 Preludes and Fugues in all major and minor keys. The interest that Czerny nurtured for the fugue, especially regarding the piano, unquestionably derived from his familiarity with Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, a collection that was widely admired at the time and closely studied by the youthful Carl during the period of his early lessons with his father, himself a pianist and teacher. The importance that Czerny attributed to a genre that was actually beginning to lose favor among audiences also relates to the fact that the Well-Tempered Clavier had likewise been fundamental for Beethoven, who was shortly to become Czerny’s teacher and in due course also his friend.

The Preludes and Fugues are the Romantic’s answer to an obsolete form, imbuing the formal counterpoint with many new pianistic devices of Czerny’s own invention.

Played on a Pleyel piano from 1853 by Emanuele Delucchi, one of the most remarkable pianists of his generation. He has the technique and style to master these difficult pieces. He made a name with his recordings for Piano Classics of the insanely difficult Chopin Studies by Godowsky, played on a 1906 Steinway D, of which the Gramophone wrote: “Its palette of warm colors remained intact but gained a more incisive attack, allowing Delucchi’s voicing and extraordinary digital facility to be heard at its best…’. “Delucchi is in a class of his own”, Jed Distler of Classicstoday.com wrote: “9/9: every inch a viable contender to the reference versions”.

Emanuele Delucchi, piano

No biography found.

Booklet for Czerny: Der Pianist im klassischen Style, Op. 856, 48 Preludes & Fugues