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Moriz Rosenthal: A Chronology
- Indiana University Press
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Moriz Rosenthal: A Chronology 1862: Born on December 18, in Lemberg, a highly cultured city on the eastern edge of the Austro-Hungarian empire (now L’viv, Ukraine). Lemberg owed its vitality to the fact that it had been under so many crowns before it became part of the empire: Poland, Sweden, Austria, and Russia. 1872–1874: Studies with Karol Mikuli, a pupil of Chopin. 1875: Rosenthal’s family settles in Vienna so that he can study with Rafael Joseffy, himself a pupil of both Franz Liszt and Carl Tausig. 1876: First public performance (Chopin’s Concerto in f, with Joseffy at the second piano, and solo pieces by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Liszt); further concerts in Belgrade and Bucharest, where he is appointed pianist to the Romanian Court (the Princess, later the Queen, who published poetry under the name Carmen Sylva, long remained a friend of the pianist’s); ¤rst meeting with Liszt (October, in Vienna), with whom he studies from 1876 to 1878 and from 1884 to 1886.1 Liszt told Ludwig Bösendorfer, who had arranged the audition , “In diesem Knaben steckt ein Künstler der nicht stecken bleiben wird”(In this boy there hides an artist who will not remain hidden for long). 1878: Gives concerts in Paris (Salle Pleyel and possibly other venues), St. Petersburg , Warsaw, etc.; with Liszt in Weimar (April to August). In an article written on the occasion of the centennial of Liszt’s birth,and published in Die Zeit (Berlin ), he would recall: At Tivoli, where in the autumn of 1878 it was my good fortune to be [Liszt’s] sole pupil, I found him essentially different; he appeared to me then in a warmer and highly artistic light. Going to the Villa d’Este every afternoon, I would ¤nd the Master composing in his study; sometimes on the terrace, gazing pensively into the blue distance. The sparkling Roman autumn, the picturesque beauty of the place, the Master’s lofty teaching—everything merged within me into a bliss which I can still feel today. (Adrian Williams, Portrait of Liszt by Himself and His Contemporaries , Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990, pp. 560–561) 1880: Hears Liszt play in Vienna (Bösendorfersaal, under the auspices of the Wagner Society); the ¤rst and only time he will hear the pianist play in public. 1880–1884: Studies in Vienna at the Gymnasium, then the university, where he attends lectures by Brentano, Hanslick, and Zimmerman. He takes no degree. 1884: Makes mature debut in Vienna (January, in the Bösendorfersaal); meets Johannes Brahms; in May travels to Leipzig for the premiere of Adalbert von Goldschmidt’s opera Helianthus, where he meets Liszt;2 presently, in Weimar, is one of the pupils of Liszt photographed with the master. (When photographed with his pupils Liszt was almost always seated, in order to emphasize that he had said what he had to say, while the pupils were young and should be ready to move forward. In this photograph, reproduced here, Rosenthal, Arthur Friedheim , and Alexander Siloti link their hands to form a symbolic chain of inheritance from Liszt.) 1888: Debuts in America. His ¤rst appearance (November 9) is a joint concert in Boston with a teenage ¤ddler named Fritz Kreisler, who is also making his debut in America. Rosenthal gives his ¤rst concert in New York (Steinway Hall, near Union Square) with Kreisler on November 13, 1888, during the Great Blizzard . Of the pianist’s contribution (Liszt’s Concerto in E-®at, the “Aria” from Schumann’s Sonata op. 11, Henselt’s “Si oiseau j’étais,” a nocturne and the Barcarolle of Chopin, the Chopin-Liszt “Maiden’s Wish,”and Liszt’s Don Juan Fantasie ), the New York Tribune (November 14) reports: To New Yorkers there is nothing novel in brilliant piano-forte playing, but it can fairly be questioned whether ever before an audience composed of experienced and discriminating music lovers in this city were stirred to such a pitch of excitement as was the case last night. This does not mean that our people have never heard more artistic playing, but primarily that they have never been so amazed and bewildered . All told, he will give more than a hundred concerts in America on this tour. 1895: Debuts in England. 1896: Begins second American tour. On November 28, he is scheduled to play Ludwig Schytte’s Concerto in c-sharp, op. 28, in Chicago, but falls ill with typhoid and must return to Europe for a long period...