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2 Review of a Concert by M. R. in Vienna 1884 Eduard Hanslick In his weak, unprepossessing outward appearance Moriz Rosenthal recalls Tausig . Nor is that the end of the similarity. He also resembles Tausig in the extraordinary brilliance of his playing. Through many years of acquaintance with modern piano virtuosity I have almost forgotten what it is to be astonished, but I found young Rosenthal’s achievements indeed astonishing. His technique scorns the most incredible dif¤culties, his strength and endurance the most inordinate demands. I need recall only two offerings which, in respect to technical dif¤culties, represent the ultimate in the piano literature: Liszt’s Don Juan Fantasie (which he played for the ¤rst time with the uncut ending) and Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Paganini, op. 35.1 In this last piece Brahms, not content with the obvious tests of dextral strength and velocity, has added latent (particularly rhythmic) dif¤culties hardly perceptible to the listener but enough to drive the player to despair.Although not comparable to the wonderful Handel Variations as a composition, the Paganini Variations comprise a noteworthy contribution to the piano literature and reveal an interesting and little-known aspect of Brahms’s creative talent. The piano virtuoso can as little afford to overlook them as the various Brahms studies (without opus number), his arrangements of Chopin’s Etude in F Minor in thirds and sixths, Weber’s Rondo in C Major (with the sixteenth-note ¤gure transferred to the left hand), and Bach’s Chaconne (for the left hand alone). The Paganini Variations (on the last of the twenty-four Capriccios) suggest a bold campaign of discovery and conquest in the ¤eld of piano virtuosity, an experiment in the capacities and possibilities of the instrument. To report that Rosenthal mastered them faultlessly, and with utter security and freedom, is to rank him automatically among the ¤rst pianists of the time. Less satisfactory was his performance of Schumann’s Novelette [op. 21] no. 2. The element of virtuosity was intrusive,not only by way of fast tempi,but also by way of certain liberties (slighting of certain notes, separation of melodically related notes and From Hanslick’s Music Criticisms, translated and edited by Henry Pleasants (New York: Dover,1988), pp. 236–237. phrases, etc.) which here and there gave a stilted effect to the melodious middle section. I was unfavorably impressed,also,by too frequent recourse to the pedals and by the unlovely violence with which the keys were pounded in fortissimo passages. And yet, these are details characteristic of all the youngsters of the Liszt-Tausig school. Such impetuosity may well subside with the years, as it did with Liszt and Tausig, and make way for more tenderness and warmth. Rosenthal ’s modest bearing and his quiet and unaffected manner at the piano merit special praise. Review of a Concert by M. R. in Vienna 41 ...

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