Friedrich Kalkbrenner
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Friedrich Wilhelm Kalkbrenner (7 November 1784–10 June 1849) was a German pianist and composer.
Son of Christian Kalkbrenner (1755-1806), a Jewish musician of Cassel, Friedrich was educated at the Paris Conservatoire, and soon began to play in public. From 1814 to 1823 he was well known as a brilliant performer and a successful teacher in London, and then settled in Paris, dying at Enghien, near there, in 1849.
As a teacher Kalkbrenner developed a piano playing technique that kept the musician's strength in the fingers and hands, instead of the forearm. This technique was used by his student Camille Stamaty, who taught it to his student, Camille Saint-Saëns.
He became a member of the Paris piano-manufacturing firm of Pleyel & Co., and made a fortune by his business and his art combined. His numerous compositions are less remembered now than his instruction-book, with studies, which has long been popular among pianists.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
