Phillip Sear plays piano music by the prolific German composer Fritz Kirchner (1840–1907). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Born in Potsdam, Kirchner received his professional training in Berlin at the Neue Academie der Tonkunst under Theodor Kullak, one of the foremost piano pedagogues of the mid-nineteenth century and a former pupil of Czerny. Kullak's institution (where Kirchner later taught) was among the most prominent private conservatories in Germany at the time, and its emphasis on brilliant keyboard technique and the cultivation of the salon repertoire left a marked impression on Kirchner's compositional priorities. He spent the greater part of his career in Berlin, where he died. Kirchner's piano music falls within the tradition of Romantic character pieces and salon dances cultivated by Kullak and his contemporaries. His catalogue, which runs to opus numbers exceeding 1000, suggests a prolific productivity directed largely at practical, pedagogical, and recreational use rather than the concert platform. Most of the numbered pieces are quite short, so he was probably not as prolific as Czerny, whose 800+ opuses included some lengthy sets of studies and other pieces. Thumbnail image created with Picsart ( tinyl.co/4WqE ).