Friedrich Wilhelm Michael Kalkbrenner (November 2–8, 1785 – August 10, 1849) was a German pianist, composer, piano teacher and piano manufacturer who spent most of his life in England and France. Before the advent of Frédéric Chopin, Sigismond Thalberg and Franz Liszt, Kalkbrenner was by many considered to be the foremost pianist in France and England, even Europe. The only serious rival he had was Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Kalkbrenner was a prolific composer of a multitude of piano works (altogether more than 200), piano concertos, and even operas.

Author of a famous method of piano playing (1831) which was in print until the late 19th century, he ran in Paris what is sometimes called a factory for aspiring virtuosos and taught scores of pupils from as far away as Cuba. His best piano pupils were Marie Pleyel and Camille - Marie Stamaty. Through Stamaty Kalkbrenner’s piano method was passed on to Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Camille Saint - Saëns. He was one of the few composers who through deft business deals became enormously rich. Chopin dedicated his first piano concerto to him. Kalkbrenner published transcriptions of Beethoven's nine symphonies for solo piano decades before Liszt did the same. He was the first one to introduce long and rapid octave passages in both hands – today so familiar from 19th century piano music - into his piano texture. Today he is not so much remembered because of his music, but because of his alleged vanity. Kalkbrenner was convinced that, after the death of Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn, he was the only classical composer left, and he never hesitated to let the world know this. Although of humble origins, he had a lifelong aspiration to be an aristocrat and delighted in rubbing shoulders with the nobility in London and Paris. He is invariably described as a somewhat pompous, formal, overly polite, yet intelligent and business wise extremely shrewd man. He was the target of many anecdotes already during his own lifetime and bitingly satirized by the German poet Heinrich Heine. There hardly is any other composer who lives on in so many anecdotes and stories as Kalkbrenner. Virtually nothing of his huge output survived, although recently several pianists have taken some shorter works of his in their repertoire. A new recording of two of his piano concertos (No. 1 and No. 4) was released in 2005, an older (and abridged) recording of the piano concerto No. 1 is still available.

Friedrich Wilhelm Kalkbrenner was the son of Christian Kalkbrenner and a (so far) unnamed mother. Kalkbrenner was born, allegedly in a post chaise, during a trip his mother made from Kassel to Berlin. The exact date of his birth could never be established, not so much due to the fact that Kalkbrenner’s parents would not know, but simply because his birth could not be registered with the authorities as the mother was en route. Kalkbrenner’s father was going to be appointed Kapellmeister to Frederica Louisa of Hesse - Darmstadt, Queen consort of Prussia, in 1786. Thus it is possible that Kalkbrenner’s mother was on the way from Hesse to Berlin to join her husband who would shortly take up his new duties at the court of Potsdam.

Kalkbrenner’s own father was his first teacher. The boy must have progressed rapidly. By the time he was six he played a piano concerto by Joseph Haydn to the Queen of Prussia. When he was eight he spoke four languages fluently. Although his education must have been privileged and took part in beautiful, even dreamy surroundings in Potsdam and Rheinsberg castle, Kalkbrenner retained the heavy Berliner argot, characteristic of working class people to this day, for the rest of his life.

At the end of 1798 Kalkbrenner was enrolled at the Paris conservatoire. He was in the piano class of Alsatian pianist and composer Louis Adam, father of the now more famous opera composer Adolphe Adam. Louis Adam was for 45 years the most influential professor for piano at the Paris Conservatory. According to French pianist and piano professor Antoine François Marmontel, he put his pupils to work on great masters like Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Haydn, Mozart, and Clementi - at that time a notable exception among piano teachers. In harmony and composition he was taught by Charles Simon Catel. Kalkbrenner was a fellow student of opera and ballet composer Ferdinand Hérold. Kalkbrenner did well at his studies. In 1800 he won second prize for piano (Pierre - Joseph - Guillaume Zimmermann came in first), in the following year first prize. When he left Paris at the end of 1802 for Vienna to continue his studies, Kalkbrenner was not yet a finished artist, but he could already look back on a solidly musical education from recognized masters in their own fields.

In the latter half on 1803 Kalkbrenner travelled to Vienna to continue with his education. It is not yet clear why he took this step, it could be that he assumed that he wanted to crown his studies with lessons from some representative of the Viennese Classical School. It must have been easy for him anyway because he spoke German as his native language and he probably had help from his father who was a known musical personality in the Austrian capital.

In Vienna he took counterpoint lessons from Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, then already quite old, but the eminence in Austrian music theory and the finest contrapuntist of his day. Moreover, Albrechtsberger had been the teacher of Beethoven, Carl Czerny, Hummel, Ignaz Moscheles, Josef Weigl, and Ferdinand Ries, and he was a close friend of Josef Haydn. Who better was there to claim as his teacher for an impressive resume, especially for one like Kalkbrenner, who always had his eye on wealth and fame? Besides taking lessons in counterpoint he saw a lot of Haydn, Beethoven and Hummel, playing duets with the latter, his only serious rival as a pianist. Thus, it is not entirely without warranty when Kalkbrenner styled himself as the last classical composer for the rest of his life. He firmly maintained that he was of the old school, and the old school was Beethoven, Haydn, Ries and Hummel.

With his educaction finally ended, Kalkbrenner in 1805 and the year thereafter appeared as concert pianist in Berlin, Munich, and Stuttgart.

From 1814 to 1823 Kalkbrenner lived in England. He gave a good many concerts, composed and established himself as a successful piano teacher. It was here that Kalkbrenner, always the astute businessman, came across an invention made by one Johann Bernhard Logier. This invention was the so-called chiroplast or hand guide. The chiroplast was a contrivance made from two parallel rails of mahogany wood that were placed on two feet and loosely attached to the piano. This apparatus should restrict vertical motions of the arms thereby helping nascent pianists to attain the (perceived) correct position of the hands. Camille Saint - Saëns, who was put to work with it as a boy, describes it:

"The preface to Kalkbrenner's method, in which he relates the beginnings of his invention, is exceedingly interesting. This invention consisted of a rod placed in front of the keyboard. The forearm rested on this rod in such a way that all muscular action save that of the hand was suppressed. This system is excellent for teaching the young pianist how to play pieces written for the harpsichord or the first pianofortes where the keys responded to slight pressure; but it is inadequate for modern works and instruments."

Useful or not, this contraption became a runaway success. There are reports that it was still available for sale in London in the 1870s. In 1817 Logier teamed up with Kalkbrenner to found an academy where music theory and piano playing, of course with the help of the chiro-plast, were taught. The proceeds from the patent made Kalkbrenner a wealthy man. In 1821 Ignaz Moscheles had also settled in London. His powerful and finished playing had a great influence on Kalkbrenner, who used his time in London to hone his technical skills even more.

In 1823 and 1824 Kalkbrenner gave concerts in Frankfurt, Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin, Prague, and Vienna. Where he went he was received with loud applause. Considering the fact that Ignaz Moscheles, who was wider known, Kalkbrenner's equal as a pianist, and a better composer, was touring the same places at roughly the same time, this was quite an achievement.

It would be wrong to classify Kalkbrenner as the Theodor Leschetizky of his time, but he had quite a few pupils and some of them became fine pianists and sometimes also good composers. Through Arabella Goddard and Camille Saint - Saëns – who studied with Kalkbrenner’s star product Camille - Marie Stamaty – Kalkbrenner’s influence reached well into the first half of the 20th century. This is a list of Kalkbrenner’s most famous students:

• Cornelius Ábrányi (1822 - 1903: Hungarian pianist and composer and a lifelong friend of Franz Liszt, was Kalkbrenner's pupil from 1843 until 1844. During the same time he also had lessons from Chopin. In 1845 he returned to his native Hungary to devote himself to composition and the build up of the Hungarian national school of composition.
• Arabella Goddard (1836 – 1922): English pianist. She began to study with Kalkbrenner at the age of 6 and also had lessons from Sigismond Thalberg. She made tours of Germany and Italy (1854 – 55); later toured the U.S., Australia, and India (1873 – 76). Harold C. Schonberg calls her the most important British pianist from 1853 until 1890. At her London debut (1853) she played Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata from memory which in those days took a great deal of courage.
• Ignace Leybach (1817 – 1891): Alsatian pianist and composer. He studied in Paris with Pixis, Kalkbrenner, and Chopin; in 1844 he became organist at the cathedral of Toulouse.
• Marie - Felicite - Denise Pleyel (1811 – 1875): was a pianist with a German mother and a Belgian father. She studied with Henri Herz, Ignaz Moscheles, and Kalkbrenner. By the time she was 15 her virtuosity created a sensation in Belgium, Austria, Germany, and Russia. Before her marriage, Hector Berlioz was madly in love with her (1830). From 1848 - 72 she was professor of piano at the Brussels Conservatory.
• Ludwig Schuncke (1810 – 1834): German pianist. He studied with his father, the horn player Gottfried Schuncke (1777 – 1840). From there he went to Paris, where he was a pupil of Kalkbrenner and Anton Reicha. He settled in Leipzig in 1833, and became the intimate friend of Robert Schumann. He was co-founder of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik.
• Camille - Marie Stamaty (1811 – 1870): French pianist, teacher and composer of piano music and studies (études). He was one of the preeminent piano teachers in 19th century Paris. His most famous pupils were Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Camille Saint - Saëns.
• Thomas Tellefsen (1823 – 1874): Norwegian pianist and composer. In 1842 he went to Paris, where he studied with Kalkbrenner. In 1844 he became a pupil of Chopin, and accompanied him to England and Scotland in 1848. He published an edition of Chopin's works, and played Chopin's music at recitals in Paris and in Scandinavia.