Customer Reviews

Karl Czerny: The Art of Finger Dexterity, Op. 740

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I am shocked at the success of this entire recording. Having received it yesterday and having listened to just about all of it, I am astounded once again by Libetta's pianism. He has given so much attention and care to each of the 50 etudes in Czerny's Op 740 that the effect is entirely musical and no way pedantic. If the Vivien H. Slater recording that's been floating around the internet has turned you off, please forget that and give this a listen. Every piece in this recording is enjoyable.

Libetta plays Op 740 twice as fast as Slater does and the effect is breathtaking. Even if you aren't a fan of a particular etude, it's pretty much over as soon as you hit `play.'

And of course harmonically, it's Czerny, so you won't find anything groundbreaking here, however, this truly is sensitive virtuoso pianism at its best.

And note: this is a LIVE recording. The sound is very good and Libetta is pretty much note perfect, using little pedal. What more could you want.

This is some of the most technically amazing playing I've heard, not to mention that this is a live recording. I think this CD should be required listening and Czerny's op. 740 should be required study for all serious pianists. I'm kind of tired of the Chopin Etudes and it is refreshing to hear these brilliant studies, which have pretty much been neglected and forgotten. Compositionally, no note is out of place in any of the pieces. Libetta's tempos are inhumanly fast, since he does take most of Czerny's metronome indications literally. Czerny was obsessed with speed, but I think many of these studies could benefit musically by slightly slower tempos. This is excellently crafted music and a joy to listen to (and play) and serve as a great alternative to Chopin's more complex harmonic style as demonstrated in his Etudes. They are also more playable and easier to listen to and understand than Chopin's often melancholy and elusive musical language. Libetta is one of the world's "super pianists" and belongs in the same company as Andre-Hamelin and Berezovsky. He is also apparently very intelligent and wrote his own illuminating program notes. Buy this CD!

I got this recording out of interest because I started work on some of these studies last Summer. Quite apart from (soundly) putting me in my place by a dazzling display of technique the performance also adds considerable amounts of musicianship to what should be just dry, boring, exercises. This is piano playing at its best.

I will now have to go back and revisit the "School of Velocity".....

All my life I have started my piano practice with Czerny finger exercises, like so many other people. Once I had a tape of some brilliant Czerny duets, but lost it, while keeping a feeling that there was more to Czerny than I knew . . . Here is the proof! These brilliant and brilliantly played studies are in the direct line of Liszt (Czerny's pupil), Alkan and Debussy. In fact Czerny may have been the first one to create artistic technical studies. Never dull, ever rushing onwards, such verve. A total delight.

This rendition of Czerny's Op.740 Etudes is typical of a pianist who has reached a certain skill level with one composer's type of technique, but is completely lacking in anything artistic. The interpretation is shallow at best, and the sound quality is superficial. Libetta has only two colors: loud and soft. I would hate to hear this pianist attempt to interpret any of the great performance masterpieces.

Libetta's technique is by no means flawless, either. For example in the 1st Etude the beginning tempo is brilliant, but by measure 10 it starts to go downhill, and not for structural reasons - the pianist simply has a technical problem when the left handed chords enter. In other places he rushes, not for a natural flow of the music going forward, but because he does not feel the inner rhythm.

Altogether it is a colossal waste of money to buy this CD. The playing is not enjoyable to listen to, and it promotes the idea that "as fast as possible" is the goal, even if it cannot be sustained throughout. Additionally, and most importantly, it is in the great words of Martha Argerich, "anti-musical".