Joseph Czerny

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Joseph Czerny (June 17, 1785 – January 7, 1842) was a pianist, composer, music publisher, and piano teacher from the Austrian Empire. He was born in Hořovice and died in Vienna, and he was not related to Carl Czerny.

Czerny wrote about 60 works, mostly piano pieces such as fantasias, rondos, and variations. One of his notable pieces is Variation No. 5 from Part II of Diabelli’s Vaterländischer Künstlerverein, and he published many of his own works.

Among his pupils were Leopoldine Blahetka and Karl van Beethoven (Beethoven’s nephew). However, his talent and music were criticized by some, including The Harmonicon and François-Joseph Fétis, who described his compositions as not very high quality.

There were doubts that Czerny actually composed the works bearing his name, with suspicions that he paid others to write them. By around 1867, the piano pieces associated with his name had largely faded from memory. In later life, he worked as a bookseller-publisher.