Carl Czerny - Piano Concerto in a minor, Op. 214 (1829)

Dedicated to Méreaux, Czerny's Piano Concerto in a minor is perhaps one of the most virtuosic piano concerti composed in the classical style, Czerny's piano concerto in a minor features a compendium of pianistic techniques developed during the early Romantic era.

David Boldrini - piano

Rami Musicali Orchestra, conducted by Maestro Massimo Belli

(from the album "Czerny & Viotti: Piano Concertos" released under Brilliant Classics).

"The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op 214, was composed in Vienna in 1829 and published the following year. It is dedicated to the French musicologist and composer Amédée Méreaux (1802–1874) who—like Czerny, and his present obscurity notwithstanding—is best known for his piano studies. (His time will come; many of his 60 Études, Op 63, are of great interest and even more difficult to play than those of Alkan.)

Some see the A minor concerto as one of the earliest Romantic concertos penned. To others it is a transitional work with elements of the many brilliant piano and orchestra works already celebrated in this Hyperion series but with many backward glances to the concertos of Hummel, Weber and Field. The first movement’s opening material is used in various guises throughout the work, its solo part described by one writer, Lorenzo Ancillotti, as ‘a true compendium of the technical difficulties that pianists of the time were likely to address’. The initial ideas, incorporating some surprising modulations, eventually subside into a second section (8'43") in A major and D minor. 

After a return to the original theme and key, Czerny introduces another subject (12'00"), presented at first in F major. Much of the delicate filigree writing is set an octave above the stave—and brilliant it is, too, as the soloist storms home after what must be one of the longest suspensions in any concerto before the inevitable release back into the tonic.

The adagio second movement is in the dominant key of E major and forms no more than a contrasting link to the finale, a 2/4 rondo marked allegro con anima—‘in a spirited manner’. ‘Spirited’ might be construed as an understatement given the demanding solo part, a relentless succession of semiquaver triplets, dancing arpeggios and scales in thirds designed to astonish and entertain in equal measure. A short chorale episode at 6'30" is the only let up for the pianist as the work bowls towards its conclusion leaving the listener in no doubt as to the key of the concerto."