This is the final release in our edition of works for piano and orchestra by Carl Czerny (1791–1857). It consists entirely of world premiere recordings. Czerny has long been known as a composer of educational keyboard resources, including piano études, methods and exercises, but students and piano connoisseurs have been delighting in discovering through our recordings that Czerny’s output went far beyond this material. The team of pianist Rosemary Tuck and conductor Richard Bonynge have done much to establish this composer as a name of significance, beyond the occasional offerings of chamber music and symphonies already in catalogues.

‘This album is an ideal conclusion to the Czerny series as it highlights three significant discoveries from his early, middle and late work.

The realisation of the orchestration from manuscript for his Fantasie et Variations Op. 3, found in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wein, has considerably heightened the music’s beauty and drama – the Fantasie mirroring the tempestuous writing of his Concerto No. 1, which shares the same key of d minor.

Czerny’s late Concertino Op. 650 takes his familiar form of a sweeping Chopinesque Introduction followed by a scintillating Rondo, though here it becomes even more fiendishly difficult and entertaining than before.

It was, however, finding all three Concertino movements which together make up the Concertstucke Op. 78 that was the biggest discovery for me. Written for lighter forces, I was surprised by the music, full of beautiful melodies and quite exquisite moments, aspects which became fully apparent when we recorded it with the orchestra. Everyone was taken with it! It is unusual in that while each Concertino movement can be performed separately, together they also make up a complete concerto of over 30 minutes – another to add to the three grand concertos and Concertino Op. 210, and something which made this recording especially worthwhile.’

– Rosemary Tuck

Rosemary Tuck and Richard Bonynge conclude their series of Czerny's works for piano and orchestra

Rosemary Tuck plays Czerny’s Piano Concertino in C Major, Op. 78 I. Allegro