Mozart/Czerny - Fantasy on “The Marriage of Figaro“ Op. 493 (audio + sheet music)

Carl Czerny (1791-1857) was at one time better known as a teacher than as a composer: Only about a hundred of his vast output of over a thousand works and 861 opus numbers are anything but exercises and studies. He himself divided his output into four categories: 1. studies and exercises, 2. easy pieces for pupils, 3. virtuosic concert pieces and 4. serious works. His influence is clearly discernible in the early works of his pupil Franz Liszt, and it is possible that Liszt developed his keyboard technique and orchestral handling of the piano specifically on the basis of Czerny’s pianism. The fact that Czerny had learnt his piano technique from Beethoven, using . Bach’s “Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments“, creates an interesting image of a keyboard line running from Johann Sebastian Bach to Liszt. Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro was already popular during his lifetime, and many of the arias had become outright hits. Mozart himself borrowed a theme from The Marriage of Figaro i