Czerny Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor (1811-12)

[JimL]

At last it is resolved.  The Op. 28 concerto is indeed an arrangement of Giuliani's 3rd Guitar Concerto.  Apparently Hummel bolstered the orchestration of the original, and Czerny arranged the solo for piano.

[JimL]

There is also the matter of the horn theme following the trumpet fanfares in the opening tutti (which reappears in the solo cadenza).  Strong resemblance to Fidelio/Leonora, no?  Same melodic gesture that Schumann would later use in his piano concerto (descending 3rd in scalar motion to the tonic).

[semloh]

>The Op. 28 concerto is indeed an arrangement of Giuliani's 3rd Guitar Concerto.

Goodness me! I completely missed that.

[gprengel]

This weekend I discoverd this fantastic piano concerto and also the 2nd one in Eb. Wow!! The first movements of these concertos were one of the greatest discoveries for me of this year!! I can't believe that this opening d-minor concerto was written in 1812! So powerfull!  - I never had expected this from Czerny because of his low reputation as Etudes composer. I listend to the movements again and again (and then also again wonderful Hummels piano concerto in b-minor). Is it worth while also to look for Czerny's symphonies?

[eschiss1]

I'd say yes.
Only 5 of his 7 symphonies are recorded so far (and one of them, the D major of 1815 only recorded on Botstein's sort-of-private online label, AND -mislabeled- as symphony no.2 in D major of 1815- making the confusion between the symphony in D major of 1815 and the twice-recorded symphony no.2 in D major, Op.781 (really his 3rd) even -more- confused!...) while nos. 3 and 4 are not recorded at all (and some of the other recordings may be out of print. There is a YouTube video of the first movement of no.5 in E-flat that you can try as a free taster, anycase.)
That said, Czerny wrote a lot more than piano etudes, and a lot of it didn't have a piano part (eg lots of a cappella choral music, and liturgical music- a dozen masses for instance- much of it still unpublished.)  Also about 2 dozen string quartets, I think (some published but only recently, not during his lifetime.) Etc.
A -lot- of this unpublished-despite the sheer amount that he did publish, including 11 piano sonatas - and a lot of his music unrecorded. (There are very good recordings, imho, of those piano sonatas, though, for example- and they're quite good!)

[Ilja]

From what I've read here and elsewhere, the only real indication we have of the existence of the C major 3rd/4th and D minor 4th/5th symphony (depending on whether one counts the 1814/5 D major as No. 1 or not) is an opus list in Grove - not always the most reliable source. Do we have any other indications these works ever existed?

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks, Eric, I hadn't realised that the D major Symphony which Botstein recorded is not the same as the "Symphony No.2 in D major" Op.781. It's good to have a recording of another one. The chronology and numbering of Czerny's symphonies is quite confusing - indeed, were the one's without opus numbers even numbered by him? The D major Op.781 was certainly published as his "Seconde" judging by the IMSLP score, but what of the rest?

[Alan Howe]

Here's a link to the download of the the gigantic (60:56!!) D major Symphony recorded by Botstein:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Czerny-Leon-Botstein-American-Orchestra/dp/B003RD1BB4/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=czerny+botstein&qid=1608575771&s=music&sr=1-2#

[Mark Thomas]

It's also streaming on Spotify.

[eschiss1]

Ilja: has anyone been able to get in touch with the Vienna Friends of Music who seem to me most likely to have the missing symphonies?