Carl Czerny (Born on February 21, 1791): Beethoven’s Student and Liszt’s Teacher

 by Georg Predota  February 21st, 2026

The Austrian composer, pianist and teacher Carl Czerny (1791–1857) was one of the towering figures in the history of nineteenth-century pianism. He is probably best known for his extensive pedagogical works, such as his études and exercises.

Yet, Czerny was more than just a teacher of technique. He was a visionary who understood the evolving demands of the piano and the pianist, helping to shape the very vocabulary of modern piano playing.

The young Carl Czerny

The predominant view of Czerny at the end of the 20th century as a pedagogue churning out a seemingly endless stream of uninspired works was circulated by Robert Schumann. However, this cavalier dismissal of Czerny was not uniformly shared.

Czerny was a musical bridge between the Classical and Romantic eras, most notably as a student of Ludwig van Beethoven and later as the teacher of Franz Liszt. Beethoven considered Czerny the favoured interpreter of his keyboard works, and Czerny equipped Liszt with the polish and finesse to embark on his pianistic conquest of the world.

To celebrate Czerny’s birthday on 21 February 1791, let’s explore his fascinating trajectory from studying under Ludwig van Beethoven to teaching the young Franz Liszt.   

A Prodigy Emerges

Carl Czerny was, without doubt, an extraordinary child prodigy. He received his first lessons from his father at the age of three. According to his autobiography, he studied Bach, Clementi, and similar works… ‘as my father, far from wanting to train me to become a superficial concert player, tried to improve my skill in sight-reading and my musical sense.’ (Czerny, Recollections From My Life)

At any rate, Carl progressed rapidly, and by the age of ten he was able to play cleanly and fluently nearly everything of Mozart and Clementi. Initially, he played piano recitals in his parents’ home, and made his first public appearance in 1800, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor.   

Studies with Beethoven

Carl Czerny

Young Czerny was first introduced to Ludwig van Beethoven at the age of only eight. The first pianistic encounter, however, took place at Beethoven’s home in 1801. The visit was arranged by the composer and violinist Wenzel Krumpholz, and Czerny recalls.

“I had to play something right away, and since I was too bashful to start with one of his works, I played the great C-major concerto by Mozart. Beethoven soon took notice, moved close to my chair, and played the orchestral melody with his left hand whenever I had purely accompanying passages.” (Czerny, Recollections From My Life)

Beethoven then asked Czerny to play his recently published Pathétique Sonata and the accompaniment to Adelaide. Beethoven was suitably impressed and declared that he would accept the boy as his pupil. As such, Carl took lessons with Beethoven from 1801 to 1803 about twice a week, and sporadically until 1804.

Czerny describes the lessons as “consisting of scales and technique at first, then progressing with the stress on legato technique throughout.” On Beethoven’s recommendations, Prince Lichnowsky engaged Carl at the age of 13 to play Beethoven’s compositions for him, “all of which Carl knew by memory insofar as they had already been composed.” (Czerny, Recollections From My Life).  

Czerny’s autobiography and letter are important documents describing Beethoven during this period. He was the first to report symptoms of Beethoven’s deafness, several years before the matter became public.

Czerny highly admired Beethoven’s facility at improvisation, his expertise at fingering, the rapidity of his scales and trills, and his restrained demeanour while performing.

In turn, Beethoven selected Czerny as pianist for the premiere of his Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1806 and, at the age of 21, in February 1812, Czerny gave the Vienna premiere of Beethoven’s “Emperor Piano Concerto.”

In his early teens, Czerny began to compose, with his first published compositions appearing in 1806. He composed with astounding energy, and when all was said and done, left a legacy of around 1,000 compositions and treatises on almost all aspects of pianism at the time.

Czerny decided against international concert tours and instead got started on a highly successful teaching career. Apparently, he taught up to twelve lessons a day in the homes of Viennese nobility, and his star students included Theodor Döhler, Stephen Heller, Anna Sick, Ninette de Belleville, and a very young Franz Liszt.  

Talent in the Rough

One morning in 1819, Czerny’s most famous student would appear at his doorstep. As he recalled, “A man brought a small boy about eight years of age to me and asked me to let that little fellow play for me. He was a pale, delicate-looking child and while playing, he swayed on the chair as if drunk, so that I often thought he would fall to the floor.”

“Moreover, his playing was completely irregular, careless, and confused, and he had so little knowledge of correct fingering that he threw his fingers over the keyboard in an altogether arbitrary fashion. Nevertheless, I was amazed by the talent with which Nature had equipped him.”

“The father told me that his name was Liszt… and that up to this time he himself had taught his son. He was now asking me whether I would take charge of his little boy beginning the following year when he would come to Vienna. Of course, I gladly assented…” (Czerny, Recollections From My Life)  

Training a Prodigy

Berlioz, Czerny and Liszt

Once piano lessons started in earnest, Czerny quickly confessed that he had never before seen such an eager, talented, or industrious student. Within weeks, Liszt was able to play the scales in all keys with a masterful fluency, and the intensive study of Clementi’s sonatas instilled in him a firm feeling for rhythm and taught him beautiful touch and tone, correct fingering, and proper musical phrasing.

After a year’s worth of lessons, Czerny allowed Liszt to perform publicly, and he apparently aroused a degree of enthusiasm in Vienna that few artists have equalled. Unfortunately, Czerny reports, “just when Liszt had reached a most fruitful stage in his studies, his father wished for great pecuniary gain and went on tour, first to Hungary and ultimately to Paris and London.” (Czerny, Recollections From My Life)

During his time of study with Carl Czerny, the 11-year-old Liszt was apparently introduced to Beethoven himself. Since Beethoven had an aversion against prodigies, he had refused to see Liszt for a long time. Finally, it was Czerny who convinced him.   

Liszt Before Beethoven

Franz Liszt reports, “Beethoven was sitting by the window at a long narrow table working. For a moment he looked at us with a serious face, said a couple of quick words to Czerny but turned silent as my dear teacher signalled to me to go to the piano.”

“First I played a small piece by Ries. When I had finished Beethoven asked if I could play a fugue by Bach. I chose the C-minor fugue from The Well-Tempered Clavier. Can you transpose this fugue? Beethoven asked.

Fortunately I could. After the final chord I looked up. Beethoven’s deep glowing eyes rested upon me, but suddenly a light smile flew over his otherwise serious face. He approached me and stroked me several times over my head with affection.

Suddenly my courage rose: “May I play one of your pieces?” I asked with audacity. Beethoven nodded with a smile. I played the first movement of his C major piano concerto.

When I had finished Beethoven stretched out his arms, kissed me on my forehead and said in a soft voice: You go on ahead. You are one of the lucky ones! It will be your destiny to bring joy and delight to many people and that is the greatest happiness one can achieve.” (Beethoven, Impressions by his Contemporaries).  

Anecdote and Evidence

That particular meeting, according to most scholars, did probably take place, but some of the dramatic elements, like the kiss and prophecy, might well have been embellished or reshaped by later storytelling.

Liszt performed several of Czerny’s compositions as part of his repertoire, and he dedicated his twelve Transcendental Etudes to Czerny as well. Subsequently, he invited Czerny to collaborate on the Hexaméron, a collaborative work commissioned by Princess Cristina Trivulzio Belgiojoso in 1837.   

Father of Modern Pianism

By passing the legacy of Beethoven to Liszt, Czerny established himself as a father of modern piano technique for subsequent generations of pianists. The list of his piano descendants is vast, and ranges from Leschetizky, Prokofiev, and Arrau, to Cziffra, Barenboim, Rachmaninoff and Fleisher.

Over the last few decades, a substantial amount of research and re-evaluation of Carl Czerny has taken place, helping us to move beyond his traditional image as a composer of dry technical exercises. Finally, it seems, musicology has taken up the suggestion of Johannes Brahms who wrote in a letter to Clara Schumann:

“I certainly think Czerny’s large pianoforte course Op. 500 is worthy of study, particularly in regard to what he says about Beethoven and the performance of his works, for he was a diligent and attentive pupil… Czerny’s fingering is particularly worthy of attention. In fact I think that people today ought to have more respect for this excellent man.”

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."

Carl Czerny - his music and his life

Carl Czerny  was an Austrian composer, teacher, and pianist of Czech origin whose music spanned the late Classical and early Romantic eras. His vast musical production amounted to over a thousand works and his books of studies for the piano are still widely used in piano teaching. He was one of Ludwig van Beethoven's best-known pupils.

Carl Czerny was born in Vienna (Leopoldstadt) and was baptized in St. Leopold parish. His parents were of Czech origin; his mother was Moravian. His parents spoke Czech with him. Czerny came from a musical family: his grandfather was a violinist at Nymburk, near Prague, and his father, Wenzel, was an oboist, organist and pianist. When Czerny was six months old, his father took a job as a piano teacher at a Polish manor and the family moved to Poland, where they lived until the third partition of Poland prompted the family to return to Vienna in 1795.

As a child prodigy, Czerny began playing piano at age three and composing at age seven. His first piano teacher was his father, who taught him mainly Bach, Haydn and Mozart. He began performing piano recitals in his parents' home. Czerny made his first public performance in 1800 playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor.

Studies with Beethoven

In 1801, Wenzel Krumpholz, a Czech composer and violinist, scheduled a presentation for Czerny at the home of Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven asked Czerny to play his Pathétique Sonata and Adelaide. Beethoven was impressed with the 10-year-old and accepted him as a pupil. Czerny remained under Beethoven's tutelage until 1804 and sporadically thereafter. He particularly admired Beethoven's facility at improvisation, his expertise at fingering, the rapidity of his scales and trills, and his restrained demeanour while performing.

Czerny's autobiography and letters give many important references and details of Beethoven during this period. Czerny was the first to report symptoms of Beethoven's deafness, several years before the matter became public. Of his first meeting with Beethoven, he wrote: "I also noticed with that visual quickness peculiar to children that he had cotton which seemed to have been steeped in a yellowish ointment, in his ears."

Beethoven selected Czerny as pianist for the premiere of the former's Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1806 and, at the age of 21, in February 1812, Czerny gave the Vienna premiere of Beethoven's "Emperor" Piano Concerto. Czerny wrote that his musical memory enabled him to play virtually all of Beethoven's piano works by heart without exception and, during the years 1804–1805, he used to play these works in this manner at Prince Lichnowsky's palace once or twice a week, with the Prince calling out only the desired opus numbers. Czerny maintained a friendship with Beethoven throughout his life, and also gave piano lessons to Beethoven's nephew Carl.

Later career

Teacher and composer

At the age of fifteen, Czerny began a very successful teaching career. Basing his method on the teaching of Beethoven and Muzio Clementi, Czerny taught up to twelve lessons a day in the homes of Viennese nobility. His 'star' pupils included Theodor Döhler, Stephen Heller, Anna Sick,Sigismond Thalberg, and Ninette de Belleville. In 1819, the father of Franz Liszt brought his son to Czerny, who recalled:

He was a pale, sickly-looking child, who, while playing, swayed about on the stool as if drunk...His playing was... irregular, untidy, confused, and...he threw his fingers quite arbitrarily all over the keyboard. But that notwithstanding, I was astonished at the talent Nature had bestowed upon him.

Liszt became Czerny's most famous pupil. He trained the child with the works of Beethoven, Clementi, Ignaz Moscheles and Johann Sebastian Bach. The Liszt family lived in the same street in Vienna as Czerny, who was so impressed by the boy that he taught him free of charge. Liszt was later to repay this confidence by introducing the music of Czerny at many of his Paris recitals. Shortly before Liszt's Vienna concert of 13 April 1823 (his final concert of that season), Czerny arranged, with some difficulty (as Beethoven increasingly disliked child prodigies) the introduction of Liszt to Beethoven. Beethoven was sufficiently impressed with the young Liszt to give him a kiss on the forehead. Liszt remained close to Czerny, and in 1852 his Études d'exécution transcendante were published with a dedication to Czerny.

Czerny left Vienna only to make trips to Italy, France (in 1837, when he was assisted by Liszt)[ and England. After 1840, Czerny devoted himself exclusively to composition. He wrote a large number of piano solo exercises for the development of the pianistic technique, designed to cover from the first lessons for children up to the needs of the most advanced virtuoso. (see List of compositions by Carl Czerny).

Death

Czerny died in Vienna at the age of 66. He never married and had no near relatives. His large fortune he willed to charities (including an institution for the deaf), his housekeeper and the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna, after making provision for the performance of a Requiem mass in his memory.[20]

Musical Double Takes: Bach, Bentzon, Czerny, Rekhin, Rheinberger, and Madsen

by Georg Predota, Interlude

Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the first composers to contemplate a collection of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys. However, the concept of basing a musical collection on a theoretical system of scales/harmonies was not new. Prior to the codification of tonality, composers had long produced collections of pieces based on church or ecclesiastical modes. That basically meant eight different scalar arrangements of whole and half tones derived from early Christian vocal conventions. Notable composers include Pachelbel, Muffat, Gorzanis, and Vincenzo Galilei, brother of the famed astronomer Galileo Galilei. Bach seemingly also consulted some contemporary models, but essentially he composed a set for a 12-note well-tempered tuning system in which all keys sounded in tune. His first collection dates from 1722, and then he did a musical double take and produced another complete set some 20 years later.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Score of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier

The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, and the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II are rightfully considered among the most important works in the history of Western music. These works have been highly influential, and various composers have composed complete sets. However, I want to introduce you to composers, who like Bach, did a musical double take and composed multiple sets of preludes and/or fugues in all keys. 

Johann Sebastian Bach amazingly wrote two complete sets of preludes and fugues, but the Danish composer and pianist Niels Viggo Bentzon (1919-2000) composed 14 separate sets of 24 preludes and fugues! By any stretch of the imagination, that is an astonishing number of works. They are collectively known as “The Tempered Piano,” and represent 20th-century examples of music written in all 24 major and minor keys.

Niels Viggo Bentzon

Niels Viggo Bentzon

In an interview, the composer referred to his “Tempered Piano as a series of aesthetic paradoxes. By this, I mean an almost complete transcription of the building blocks of classical music. If a Fugue from one of the tempered pianos is crammed with imitation, one can be dead sure that the phenomenon functions differently than in Bach or Handel. In The Tempered Piano, a theme may appear in its entirety at the beginning of the piece, only to change gradually, almost out of recognition, as that particular piece winds to an end.” The composer was once asked about the exact meaning of his compositions, and he responded, “I have to admit with shame that I am virtually seldom inspired. It is just a matter of getting hold of a pencil and firing away.” Bentzon has also composed 24 Symphonies—not ordered according to keys—operas, ballets, concertos, string quartets, and many additional piano works. 

Carl Czerny (1791-1857) came from a very musical family. His grandfather was a professional violinist, and his father an oboist, organist, and pianist. Little Carl was a child prodigy, and he started piano lessons with his father at the age of three. By the age of ten, he became a student of Beethoven, and he maintained a relationship with the composer throughout his life. At the core of Carl Czerny’s early piano studies stood Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. We know that he carefully studied this collection during his early lessons with his father. Likewise, the WTC had been fundamental to Beethoven as well.

Carl Czerny

Carl Czerny, 1833

Today we know that Czerny produced a collection of exercises and studies that might rightfully be described as “industrial.” He composed a number of fugues early on that became part of his performing repertoire as a concert pianist. Czerny composed at least three complete sets of preludes and fugues in all 24 major and minor keys. The most impressive collection emerges in his Op. 856, in which he tried to update this archaic genre. It has been suggested that Czerny dedicated this set to Liszt, who had been Czerny’s most outstanding student. We don’t know how Liszt reacted to the dedication, but critics were generally dismissive. Robert Schumann “accused Czerny of insisting on an obsolete genre without renewing in any way the classical models established by Bach.” He even found fault with Czerny’s creativity, with the way he avoided the formal procedures that make the fugue interesting: transformations of the subject through augmentation, diminution, inversion, crab canons, and layering two or more themes or using subject and countersubject in the Handel fashion. Although homages to Bach and Handel are frequent, Czerny does attempt to dress his use of strict counterpoint in the characteristics of the emerging gallant style. 

Igor Rekhin

Igor Rekhin

Collections of preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys are not exclusively tied to keyboard instruments. Such is the case with Russian composer Igor Rekhin, born in 1941. Rekhin fashioned two complete sets: the 24 Caprices for solo cello, and 24 Preludes and Fugues for guitar. Rekhin composed over 100 works in various genres, but the 24 Preludes and Fugues for solo guitar are unique. The initial idea emerged in 1985, on the 300th anniversary of Bach’s birth. The composer writes, “At the beginning of the work on the prelude and fugue I imagined a musical idea that I subsequently wrote down. I tested that idea on the piano and then elaborated it on the guitar. I quickly found that many ideas that sounded good on the piano were difficult to transplant to the guitar. That path was ineffective, so I changed my approach and just picked up the guitar and began to look for polyphonic solutions.” Critics were enthusiastic, and suggested that the collection “opened the concert repertoire for guitar in a completely new way. Maintaining the tradition of the old polyphonic masters of the lute in a homogeneous connection with the latest styles and trends, including pop to avant-garde, this cycle gives guitarists the opportunity to be placed on par with other traditional concert instruments such as the piano.” 

Josef Rheinberger

Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger

Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger (1839-1901) was born in Liechtenstein, and he inherited his musical talents from his mother. He started lessons with the local organist at age five, and two years later he was appointed organist in Vaduz and was writing his first compositions. Against the wishes of his family, Rheinberger went to Munich to continue his studies, and he subsequently held a number of important posts in that city. Among them was the appointment as the instructor in counterpoint at the Royal Academy of Music, and his students included Engelbert Humperdinck, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, and Wilhelm Furtwangler. Organ music formed the core of Rheinberger’s compositional efforts, and he espoused a conservative musical style influenced by Bach, Mozart, and Haydn. As such, it is hardly surprising to find two sets of compositions in all major and minor keys. His 24 Fughettas Op. 123 are essentially lyric miniatures in a highly contrapuntal style. Rheinberger was also looking to compose 24 organ sonatas in all major and minor keys but sadly died having completed only 20. 

Trygve Madsen

Trygve Madsen

The Norwegian composer Trygve Madsen was born in 1940. “I had the good fortune to be born into a family of musicians,” he explains, “my grandfather and his seven sons were all professional musicians. At six I began playing the piano and began composing at about the same age. As my piano playing developed I became increasingly involved in the daily music-making at home, joining in anything from popular songs to sonatas.” Madsen studied with the organist Johannes Almgren, who had been a student of the famous theoretician Hermann Grabner, who in turn had been a student of Max Reger. However, Madsen was not only interested in counterpoint but from an early age, he was also attracted by jazz. He listened to recordings by Erroll Garner, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Oscar Peterson for hours on end. A clear formative musical influence was provided by Sergei Prokofiev, with Madsen writing ”That was what made me a composer. I realized that this was the way for me; everything came together in Prokofiev’s music. It was like coming home! Prokofiev shaped and molded his musical material in his own way with superb craftsmanship, without violating the rules of music – often infusing it with a liberating sense of humour.” Madsen composed two complete sets of music in all major and minor keys; 24 Preludes, Op. 20 and 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 101. He began work on the full cycle of 24 Preludes and Fugues in 1995, with a clearly laid out play of the order in which the keys would be presented. Bach had ordered his set chromatically, while Shostakovich and Chopin preferred an order according to the cycle of fifths. Madsen, ingeniously, based his collection on the astrological treatise “The Harmony of the Spheres,” by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler. Kepler suggested, “the relationship between the planets corresponds to the relationship between musical intervals.” Basing his set on an astrological point of view, Madsen’s system “consists of a row of descending minor thirds interrupted by an ascending tritone. In the next episode of musical double takes, we find music by Charles-Valentin Alkan, Lera Auerbach, Adolf von Henselt, Vsevolod Zaderatsky, Dmitry Shostakovich, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Louis Vierne, Friedrich Kalkbrenner, and Nikolai Kapustin.