Czerny

Beethoven's pupil and Liszt's teacher — what stands between those two names is him. He began lessons with Beethoven at ten and became the most sought-after teacher in Vienna, reportedly teaching twelve hours a day.

He wrote close to a thousand works, of which essentially only the studies survive in use: the School of Velocity, the Art of Finger Dexterity, the books every piano student passes through. That has left him a reputation for dullness, which is unfair — each of those studies solves one specific technical problem, and they are built as cleanly as engineering drawings. He was also the first person to record and transmit Beethoven's own performing practice seriously.