The name Carl Czerny may strike terror in the hearts of many adults who, as children, were subjected to the dense, difficult, and boring finger exercises that were overused by far too many piano teachers. In fact, his exercises and etudes make up only about a 10th of his catalog of more than 2,000 compositions. Adaptions and transcriptions for the piano were the major part of the output of the 19th-century Viennese composer/piano teacher. Most melodies came from operatic "hits" of the day, most of which are now out of the repertory. Czerny excelled in passages of brilliant virtuosity and velocity, and he didn't even stop at music for a single keyboard! One of Czerny's arrangements of a Rossini opera overture indicated "Up to 8 Pianos". The two Quatuor Concertants were written for a fund-raising concert to assist Danube flood victims. The four pianos were played mainly by female members of the nobility, and Czerny was careful to give each woman exactly 19 pages of sheet music to avoid jealousy. Bellini, Auber, Meyerbeer, Flotow, and Mozart are among the opera composers quoted in the pieces. Mozart's melodies stand out, as expected, as does Paganini's familiar theme "La Campanella". ... On this disc, all four pianos are clearly spaced out in the soundstage, and the technical demands are fully met by all six pianists. It's something like hearing Horowitz, squared!