The genre piano étude, originally only meant for study purposes, went through a huge evolution during the 19th century. Many composers knew how to combine work with pleasure and that is how the genre concert étude was born. A world tour through music history in search of piano études. Part IV: Czerny and Liszt.
In the second half of the eighteenth century fortepiano’s were very popular. Every self-respecting house had one. That also meant lots of work for piano teachers like Clementi, who after a while also started to compose study material of their own. Soon études grew out to be recital pieces and so the genre concert étude was born. Not only Chopin, Schumann and Liszt but nowadays also lesser known composers like Moscheles, Hummel and Von Henselt enjoyed themselves with this genre. Etudes were also still written in the 20th century. (Part I: Wednesday 15 September 2010, 20-22h, part II & III Wednesday 12 January 2011 20-22h)
