School of Velocity, Op. 299, Vol 1 (Kalmus Edition, Vol 1) Paperback – March 1, 1985

Lord knows that the Nineteenth Century left reams upon published reams of technical exercises for piano. A lot of it, of the more utilitarian kind as opposd to concert etudes, is mindless drudgery to learn, and nobody should spend an excessive amount of time on this kind of literature that can tire mind and soul as well as the flesh, but some of it still is useful, even essential, to the formation of good piano technic. Some of it, on the other hand, is positively detrimental, such as the gruesome and grotesquely overrated exercises by Charles-Louis ("Clobberfists") Hanon, which merely stiffen the wrist and even can cause muscular cramps and disfunctions. Shun Hanon; one seeks to develop technic, not tendinitis! One also, however, thinks of the really essential works of the kind by Stephen (or István) Heller, Friedrich Burgmüller, Guy Mayer, Johannes Brahms (his "5l" of exceeding importance), Josef Pischna, Konrad Max Kunz (his fiendishly clever little exercise canons), and, not to forget, Carl Czerny.One with much profit also might mingle some Czerny with, perhaps even supplant it by, according to need or temperament, studies by Muzio Clementi, notably his celebrated "Gradus ad Parnassum" (not to be confused with works of similar title by Czerny and others). It is best to use Clementi`s work in a truly complete edition of it (e.g., the good one published by Ricordi in three volumes), but to avoid the edition published by Schirmer and others, in which Max Vogrich rearranged the sequence of the studies (and tampered with the music in various ways). This is better than to make resort to an edition merely of excerpts of Clementi`s own work (as in Tausig`s much printed 50 etudes selected from it); it is a daunting prospect actually to learn all of the musical studies in the volumes of Ricordi`s edition of it, but to posess Muzio Clementi`s entire "Gradus ad Parnussum" enables one to choose those which are most personally suitable at any moment to use in confronting and working upon a particular technical problem. The resourceful pianist will find ways to devise his own exercises based on (and resembling more systematically) the difficult passages from the musical works that he is learning, resembling those which Alfred Cortot supplied, in his superb edition of them, to learn in order to master, and in harness with, each piece's chief difficulties in every one of Chopin`s études.As for Czerny himself, he published so endlessly so many volumes of technical exercises that his concert music has all been but (though not quite entirely) forgotten. By far most of these paedagogical works are expendable, but among those that remain pristine classics for piano technical development, the "School of Velocity" (or, more properly, of "fluency"), op. 299, and, as an alternative (or supplment) to it (one that such a great pianist and musical editor as Ignacy Jan Paderewski himself preferred), "The Art of Finger Dexterity", op. 740, together sum up the best of what Czerny, a pupil, after all, of Beethoven himself, has of most value to offer, i.e. a fluid, secure, even, and dexterous capacity to play music in the Classical and early Romantic styles wherein "passage work" (scales, arpeggios, etc.) abound. That said, however, the student of piano playing, especially one only yet at a medium (rather than more advanced) level of expertise, should bear in mind that Czerny`s op. 740 sets out requiring, initially, a greater level of already acquired proficiency than the playing level which the opening studies within op. 299 would necessiate beforehand; both sets of studies progress to a more similarly advanced level by in the lattermore etudes within each of these pedagogical works. As for Czerny`s op. 299 itself, those studies do not spare the pianist the innocuous-looking but real pitfalls that can occur in such playing music for the mastery of which both sets of his studies are designed, which makes his op. 299 (as also his op. 740) so faithful in developing well-grounded and secure technic; Czerny`s exercises, also, are not lacking a a certain kind of dry grace and even charm that make them more bearable to play at length than the truly spirit-crushing aridity of what altogether too many other composers in the genre too frequently offer of this kind of stuff.There are many editions of the opus 299 available, all quite serviceable, but Alfred Publishers, which offers so many practical editions of music for educational use, is as good as any other edition of Czerny`s op. 299 for most needs. (I learned the opus 299 from the editions put out by Steingräber of the complete opus 299, and by Woods of Book One alone of the "299".) The pianist profitably uses together Czerny`s opus 299 (or his opus 740) to develop graceful and muscularly relaxed playing, Brahms' "51 Exercises" for sheer muscle power in the fingers and wrists (rather than making resort to the damaging efforts of Hanon for similar ends by bad means), as well as any of the sets or anthologies of Johann Baptist Cramer`s studies (études) for the wide variety of special technics and textures found in truly virtuosic repertoire (including many such studies useful to master the intricate writing for subsidiary inner voices of the right and left hands which occur in much of such music, some of these studies even being also suitable for occasional inclusion in the pianist`s recital repertory). Together, I would say, these form, along with Clementi`s celebrated "Gradus ad Parnassum", in a truly complete edition of it (rather than merely in Karl Tausig`s stunted selection from the work), the bare minimum of technic books to develop a pianist`s technical skills. Of course, however, beginners need etudes and exercises at easier levels of difficulty to master on the way to using the works named above. Those adult essentials, of Czerny and of Brahms, always are on the music racks of my Knabe (upright) and Blüthner (grand) pianos. You might want them to be on the music rack of your own household's or studio's piano, too.