Kalkbrenner, Frédéric (EN)

Kalkbrenner Frédéric, Friedrich, Wilhelm Michael, *7 November 1785 during his mother’s journey between Kassel and Berlin, †10 June 1849 Enghien-les Bains near Paris, French pianist, composer and teacher, son of Christian Kalkbrenner. Initially, he studied music with his father, and in 1798–1802, he studied at the conservatory in Paris with, among others, L. Adam (piano) and Ch.-S. Catel (harmony), and won first prizes in piano and composition class. From 1803 to 1804 he stayed in Vienna under Haydn’s care, there he met M. Clementi and studied counterpoint with J.G. Albrechtsberger. In 1805, returning to Paris, he gave concerts in Munich, Stuttgart and Frankfurt am Main. He gained recognition, but until 1814 he performed rarely. It was only during his stay in England in 1814–24 that he gained fame as an excellent pianist, teacher and composer. He performed in Bath, London, where in particular his performance of Piano Concerto No. 1 (1823) brought him fame, which launched his international career; Kalkbrenner then went on a concert tour of Germany and Austria, and in 1824 he gave concerts in Ireland and Scotland. In 1824–35, he reached the peak of his pianistic and teaching fame. In England from 1818, he became associated with J.B. Logier, who promoted the method of group piano lessons and was the inventor of the device called chiroplast – to support hands during exercise, which influenced Kalkbrenner’s construction of a similar device, the so-called guide-mains. At the end of 1824, he returned to Paris and entered into cooperation with the piano company of I. Pleyel and his son Camille. He introduced improvements to English piano mechanics, which he transferred to France. In 1831, he published Méthode pour apprendre le pianoforte… in Paris and ran a kind of three-year school (for piano teachers), and also taught piano at the Paris Conservatory. Chopin – despite his great respect for Kalkbrenner – did not decide to take regular lessons with him, but they remained friends and Chopin dedicated his Concerto in E minor to him. Kalkbrenner helped to organise Chopin’s first concert in the Pleyel salons (25 February 1832), during which he performed, among others: Kalkbrenner’s Polonaise for 6 pianos (Kalkbrenner, Hiller, Osborne, Stamaty, Sowiński and Chopin). Kalkbrenner’s house was frequently visited by aristocratic society and famous artists. After 1835, when a new generation of outstanding pianists appeared in Paris, such as Liszt, Chopin and Thalberg, Kalkbrenner’s fame as a virtuoso decreased. After 1839, Kalkbrenner stopped performing in public, remaining an active teacher and composer until his death. As a teacher, he was appreciated by Liszt, Chopin, Schumann, and Mendelssohn. Kalkbrenner’s students included: M.F. Pleyel, G. Osborne, C. Stamaty, A. Thomas and C. Saint-Saëns. He was one of the first virtuoso composers to gain full independence. He married Marie d’Estaing. His son Arthur (1828–1869), a pianist and composer, did not achieve much success. Kalkbrenner was decorated with the following orders: 1828 of the Legion of Honor, 1833 of the Prussian Red Eagle, and 1836 of Leopold of Belgium.

Kalkbrenner’s playing was characterised by precision, clarity and beauty of tone. What distinguished him from other virtuosos was his elegance and finesse of stroke, not devoid of a certain dose of coquetry (“Le Pianiste”). Thanks to guide-mains – a wooden strip maintaining the arm and the position of the hands, which Kalkbrenner used until his old age – he perfected the independence of the hands and finger technique, putting emphasis on the work of the wrist (also when performing octaves). Chopin opposed such support for playing with apparatus, supporting the playing of the entire hand – forearm and upper arm – and not just the wrist and fingers. Kalkbrenner also used a silent keyboard for practice. He attached great importance to playing with his left hand. He included his credo in terms of technique and aesthetics of playing in Méthode, which, although it was not as good as Czerny’s school, had many methodological advantages. Kalkbrenner gave many tips on pedalling, fingering, phrasing, ways of producing sound and making ornaments. To achieve a melodious tone and lead a vocal phrase, he recommended imitating great singers (e.g. G. Crescentini) and piano masters such as J.B. Cramer. He associated the style of playing with the type of instrument – Viennese instruments, light and easy to play, were associated with a clear, “pearly” performance, while English instruments, with a heavier mechanism, were associated with a legato, necessary for “singing” on the piano when performing larger melodic arcs. At concerts, he performed almost exclusively his own songs. In his free fantasising, he was inferior to the great masters of improvisation, because he often combined fragments of his compositions, subjected only to figurative modifications.

In his work he focused on piano music. He was fascinated by the ideals of the classical form of Cramer and Clementi, but he imbued it with the virtuosity of the brillant style, which was manifested not only in the arrangements on various topics typical of the Parisian composition community, but also in the sonata cycle. After 1820, he tried to use the achievements of Hummel, Field, and later also Chopin, Thalberg and Liszt, but he did not do it in a creative way, his compositions lacked features of originality. Kalkbrenner developed primarily technical means – arpeggios, tremolos, octaves, especially the left hand, ornamental figures, and used the entire piano scale. His works sometimes feature interesting transitions to distant keys, but what is striking is the poverty of contrapuntal work and the repetition of figuration. The largest group in Kalkbrenner’s piano output are variations, fantasies and rondos on operatic and other themes (approximately 80 cycles in total), written mainly on the inspiration of publishers, intended for amateurs with a high level of piano preparation. His variations are quite formulaic; they include an introduction, a theme with three variations and a finale brillant (the Variations on Chopin’s Mazurka also have this arrangement). The composer shows greater attention to the development of musical thought in his fanciful approaches to operatic themes, and above all in his independent fantasies (e.g. Effusio musica Op. 68). Kalkbrenner introduced certain cuts in his studies and eliminated the “eternal codes and dynamic build-ups” (“Le Pianiste”) typical of the arrangements of the then model. In his miniatures, Kalkbrenner referred to the form of a nocturne (Le soupir, Op. 121). His etudes (some arranged in a cycle of fifths in the key, like the cycle of 24 preludes, Op. 88) were appreciated but were not equal to the collections of Cramer or Clementi. The Traité d’harmonie du pianiste also contains etudes, preludes and fugues as examples for learning how to prelude and improvise based on chords and modulations (e.g. a sequence of modulations on a diminished seventh chord). In Kalkbrenner’s first three sonatas, what is noticeable is the clarity of technical figures (Op. 1), and the deepening of expression in Op. 48 and 56, developed brillant technique in Op. 177 and a unique cycle for the left hand, Op. 42. Chamber music is dominated by the piano, treated in a virtuosic manner, similarly to concertos and other works with an orchestra, in which the role of the orchestra’s accompaniment is limited only to maintaining harmony and colouring the musical course. Schumann rated the First Concerto quite highly, but the Fourth Concerto has a more dramatic character.

Literature: Memoir of Mr Frédéric Kalkbrenner, “Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review” VI, London 1824; Boivin Kalkbrenner, “Le Biographe Universel” II, Paris 1842; N.J. Fètis Notice biographique sur Kalbrenner. Analyse de son style, in: Oeuvres choisies de Frédéric Kalkbrenner «Bibliothèque classique des pianistes» XV, Paris 1860; A. Marmontel Les pianistes célèbres, Paris 1878; R. Eitner Kalkbrenner Friedrich, in: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, vol. 15, Leipzig 1882; S. Heller Une visite à Kalkbrenner (1838), “Bulletin français de la Société Internationale de Musique” VI, 1910; H. Engel Die Entwicklung des deutschen Klavier-Konzertes von Mozart bis Liszt, Leipzig 1927; A. Diesterweg Frédér Wilhelm Kalkbrenner und Frederick Chopin oder Schule und Genie, “Allgemeine Musikzeitung” LXV, 1938; W.C.M. Kloppenburg De ontwikkelingsgang van de Pianomethoden, Utrecht 1951; Korespondencja Fryderyka Chopina, 2 vol., edited by B.E. Sydow, Warsaw 1955; W. Georgii Klavier-Musik, Zurich 2^nd ed. 1956; K. Wagner Kalkbrenner Friedrich, in: Neue Deutsche Biographie, vol. 11, Berlin 1977; H. Nautsch Fredrich Kalkbrenner. Wirkung und Werk, Hamburg 1983; I. Poniatowska Muzyka fortepianowa i pianistyka w wieku XIX. Aspekty artystyczne i społeczne, Warsaw 1991.