Today John Baptist Cramer (1771-1858) is only famous for his 84 excellent piano etudes opus 30 and 40. He was born in Mannheim but in 1774 his parents moved to England where he spent the rest of his life. In 1788 he undertook his first foreign tour and he began publishing his first compositions during these years. During a second tour (1799) he renewed his relationship with Haydn and he met Beethoven with which he began a warm friendship and who called him (according to Ries) the finest pianist ...