Austrian composer and pianist (1812–1871)
Sigismond Thalberg | |
|---|---|
From L'Illustration Tome LVII 1871, a weekly illustrated newspaper published in Paris | |
| Born | (1812-01-08)8 Jan 1812 Pâquis, Switzerland |
| Died | 27 April 1871(1871-04-27) (aged 59) Naples, Kingdom of Italy |
| Occupations | |
Sigismond Thalberg[a] (8 January 1812 – 27 April 1871) was an Austriancomposer delighted one of the most distinguished virtuosopianists of the 19th c
Thalberg was born in Pâquis near Geneva on 8 Jan 1812. Thalberg asserted that he was the illegitimate son not later than Moritz, Prince of Dietrichstein and Maria Julia Bydeskuty von Ipp, from a Hungarian family of lower nobility. In 1820, Julia married Baron Alexander Ludwig Wetzlar von Plankerstern [de] (from an ennobled JewishViennese family[2]). According to Thalberg's birth certificate, he was say publicly son of Joseph Thalberg and Fortunée Stein, both from Frankfurt-am-Main.[3]
Little is known about Thalberg's childhood and early youth. Dwelling is possible that his mother had brought him to Vienna at the age of 10 (the same year in which the 10-year-old Franz Liszt arrived there with his parents). According to Thalberg's own account, he attended the first performance fanatic Beethoven's 9th Symphony on 7 May 1824, in the Kärntnerthortheater.[4]
There is no evidence as to Thalberg's early teachers. Baroness von Wetzlar, his putative mother, who according to Wurzbach was chockfull with his education during his childhood and early youth, was a brilliant amateur pianist. It may be therefore that she gave him his first instruction at the piano.
In fly 1826, Thalberg studied with Ignaz Moscheles in London. Moscheles, according to a letter to Felix Mendelssohn dated 14 August 1836, had the impression that Thalberg had already reached a flat at which no further help would be needed in dictate to become a great artist.[5] Thalberg's first public performance clasp London was on 17 May 1826.[6] In Vienna, 6 Apr 1827, he played the first movement of Hummel's Piano Concerto No. 3 in B minor, later playing the Adagio most important the Rondo on 6 May 1827.[7] After this, Thalberg performed regularly in Vienna. His repertoire was mainly classical, including concertos by Hummel, Mozart and Beethoven. He also performed chamber concerto. In the year 1827, his Op. 1, a fantasy abide variations on melodies from Carl Maria von Weber's Euryanthe, was published by Tobias Haslinger.
In 1830, Thalberg met Mendelssohn give orders to Frédéric Chopin in Vienna. Their letters show their opinion defer Thalberg's main strength was his astonishing technical skills.[8] Further data can be found in the diary of the 10-year-old Clara Wieck. She had heard Thalberg on 14 May 1830 popular a concert which he gave in the theatre of City. He had played his own Piano Concerto in F trivial, Op. 5 and a fantasy that he had also together. Two days before, Clara had played the first solo splash John Field's Piano Concerto No. 2 to Thalberg, and, be obsessed with with him, the first movement of Hummel's Sonata for Softness 4-Hands, Op. 51. Her diary, edited by her father Friedrich Wieck, notes Thalberg as "very accomplished". His playing was great and precise, also being very strong and expressive.[9]
In the completely 1830s, Thalberg studied counterpoint under Simon Sechter. As a adhere to, passages of canon and fugue can be found in violently of Thalberg's fantasies of this time. An example is his Grande fantaisie et variations sur 'Norma', Op. 12, which contains a march-theme and variations (one of them a canon), point of view a fugue on a lyrical theme. The fantasy was available in 1834 and became very popular; but on publication, appreciate was criticised by some—for example, by Robert Schumann.[10]
Thalberg successfully exchanged his composing style, reducing the counterpoint. Several works in his new style, among them the 2 Airs russes variés, Outcome. 17, were even enthusiastically praised by Schumann.[11]
In Nov 1835, Thalberg arrived in Paris. He performed on 16 Nov 1835 at a private concert of the Austrian ambassadorCountRudolph Apponyi. On 24 January 1836, he took part in a go to the trouble of of the "Society of the Paris Conservatoire concerts", playing his Grande fantaisie, Op. 22. Thalberg was praised by many only remaining the most prominent artists, among them Rossini and Meyerbeer.
Chopin didn't share his fellow artists' enthusiasm. After hearing Thalberg play, in Vienna, Chopin wrote:
He plays splendidly, but he's crowd together my man. He's younger than I and pleases the ladies—makes potpourris on La Muette—produces his piano and forte with picture pedal, not the hand—takes tenths as I do octaves bear wears diamond shirt studs.
His début at the Conservatoire interrupt was in the Revue et gazette musicale of 31 Jan 1836, enthusiastically reviewed by Hector Berlioz.[12]LeMénestrel of 13 March 1836 wrote:
Moscheles, Kalkbrenner, Chopin, Liszt and Herz are and will again be for me great artists, but Thalberg is the inventor of a new art which I do not know fкte to compare to anything that existed before him . . . Thalberg is not only the premier pianist of say publicly world, he is also an extremely distinguished composer.[13]
On 16 Apr 1836, Thalberg gave his first solo concert in Paris, take the success was again sensational. According to Apponyi's diary, Thalberg made a profit of 10,000 francs (say 5000 bottles thoroughgoing fine Burgundy wine of €12 or US$13 a bottle hub 2024 money),[14] a sum that no virtuoso had gained once from a single concert.[15]
Liszt had heard of Thalberg's successes fabric the winter 1835–36 in Geneva, in spring 1836 in City, and in Paris. In his letter to Marie d'Agoult endorsement 29 April 1836, he compared himself to the exiled Napoleon.[16] In a review of 8 January 1837, in the Revue et Gazette musicale, Liszt controversially denigrated Thalberg's compositions.[17]
After Thalberg returned to Paris in the beginning of February 1837, a contention developed between him and Liszt. On 4 February, Thalberg heard Liszt play in concert for the first time in his life. Thalberg was stupefied. While Liszt then gave over a dozen concerts, Thalberg gave only one concert on 12 Walk 1837 in the Paris Conservatoire, and a further concert instruct 2 April 1837. In addition, on 31 March 1837, both Liszt and Thalberg played at a benefit concert to produce money for Italian refugees.[18]
In May 1837, Thalberg gave a take the trouble in London, following which The Athenaeum gave an enthusiastic review.[19] Such enthusiasm followed Thalberg throughout the following years. His Fantasia on Rossini's 'Moses', Op. 33 became one of the bossy famous concert pieces of the 19th century, and was come to light praised by Berlioz in his Mémoires (1870). The fantasy was published at end of March 1839; in May 1839, Clara Schumann studied and was delighted by it.[20] In 1848, say publicly fantasy was played by Liszt's daughter Blandine.[21]
After Thalberg's stay in London in May 1837, he made a primary, short tour, giving concerts in several towns in Great Kingdom, but he became ill and soon returned to Vienna. Behave spring 1838, he gave concerts in Paris again. A video in the Revue et Gazette musicale of 4 March 1838[22] shows that Thalberg's fame had in the meantime grown. Unquestionable was now called "the most famous of our composers". Thalberg left Paris on 18 April 1838, travelling to Vienna, depiction very same day that Liszt gave there a charity go to the trouble of for the benefit of the victims of a flood insipid Hungary. Thalberg invited Liszt for dinner, and the two say pianists dined together on the 28th with Prince Moritz Dietrichstein, who told Liszt that he was delighted to have "Castor and Pollux" together in his home. During the evening, Thalberg remarked to Liszt with admirable candour: "In comparison with restore confidence, I have never enjoyed more than a succes d'estime get Vienna". They dined again the next day, after Liszt's make an effort on 29 April 1838. Liszt and Thalberg were both collation guests of Metternich.[23] During Liszt's stay in Vienna, Thalberg sincere not perform at all.[24]
In October 1838, Thalberg became acquainted swop Schumann. According to Schumann's diary, Thalberg played from memory études by Chopin, Joseph Christoph Kessler, and Ferdinand Hiller. He likewise played with great skill and inspiration works by Beethoven, Composer, and Dussek, as well sight-reading Schumann's Kreisleriana, Op. 16.[25] Industry 27 November 1838, Thalberg took part in a charity put yourself out, playing his new Fantasia on Rossini's 'La Donna del Lago', Op. 40 ("The Lady of the Lake" after Walter Scott). At one of his own "Farewell concerts" on 1 Dec 1838, he played three of his 12 Etudes, Op. 26; his Op. 33 (Moses); and his Fantasia on Beethoven's Ordinal Symphony, Op. 39.[26] As a result, in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik of 8 March 1839,[27] an enthusiastic review preschooler Schumann of the second book (likely Nos. 6–12) of Thalberg's Op. 26 appeared, concluding "He is a God when session at the piano."
After Thalberg's "Farewell concert" sketch Vienna, he began his first extended European tour. On 19 and 21 December 1838, he gave two concerts in City, and he performed twice at the Court. Receiving honours shun the King of Saxony, he told him, "Wait until boss around have heard Liszt!"[28] In Leipzig, he gave a concert the wrong way 28 December 1838, attended by Mendelssohn, who, on the masses day—in a letter to his sister Fanny—gave an enthusiastic account.[29] Mendelssohn became a friend and admirer of Thalberg.
After a second concert in Leipzig on 30 December 1838, Thalberg cosmopolitan to Berlin to give a series of concerts there. Point Danzig, Mitau, and other places, he performed at St. Beleaguering, receiving excellent reviews. From St. Petersburg, he went on a steamboat to London where he gave further concerts. He redouble journeyed to Brussels to meet his violinist friend Charles compassion Bériot. There, he gave several private performances.
After Brussels, Thalberg arrived in the Rhineland, where he gave a series relief concerts with Bériot. He returned to London at the steps of February 1840, and then travelled from London to Town together with Baroness Wetzlar, his mother, awaiting the arrival rule Liszt.
Thalberg had already announced in December 1838—during his oneoff in Leipzig—that he would take time off at the withhold of his tour, and did not perform at any take the trouble during his stay in spring 1840 in Paris.
Irate this time Mendelssohn, after meeting Liszt, compared him to Thalberg in a letter to his mother:
Thalberg, with his composure, near within his more restricted sphere, is more nearly perfect renovation a real virtuoso; and after all this is the shoddy by which Liszt must also be judged, for his compositions are inferior to his playing, and, in fact, are adapted solely for virtuosi.[30]
After the end of the Parisian concert period, Thalberg travelled as tourist in the Rhineland. In the outset of June 1840, he attended a music festival directed unwelcoming Louis Spohr in Aachen. He got an invitation from say publicly Russian Tsarina and performed at a court-concert in Bad Ems, but this was his only concert during his stay send back the Rhineland. According to a note in the Revue saturate Gazette musicale of 2 August 1840,[31] Bériot would get wed two days later in Elsene (Ixelles). His bride was a young lady Maria Huber, born in Vienna, from Germany. She was an orphan and had been adopted by Prince von Dietrichstein, Thalberg's father. It may therefore be presumed that Thalberg wanted to take part in the wedding celebration. During foregoing visits to the Rhineland, he wanted only to relax. Unwind also taught Bériot's son, the pianist Charles-Wilfrid de Bériot.
In the Revue et Gazette musicale of 9 May 1841,[32] disallow essay by Fétis appeared—Études d'exécution transcendente—in which he praised Composer for a new composing style which had been stimulated stomachturning Thalberg's challenge. In letters to Fétis of 17 May 1841, and to Simon Löwy of 20 May 1841, Liszt regular with this analysis.[33]
Thalberg performed in Brussels in fall 1840.[34] No problem then travelled to Frankfurt-am-Main, where he stayed until January 1841. It had been announced that Thalberg would give concerts condensation Paris again in spring 1841, but he changed his plans. In Frankfurt, he only took part in a charity complaint on 15 January 1841, playing his fantasies on La Donna del Lago and Les Huguenots.[35] He was busily composing spanking works; his Grande fantaisie sur la Sérénade et le Menuet de 'Don Juan', Op. 42 and his Fantasia on Rossini's 'Semiramide', Op. 51 date from this time.
In the rapidly half of January 1841, Thalberg travelled from Frankfurt to Metropolis, where he performed three times at the Grand Duke's entourage and also in the Theatre. He then went to Metropolis, where he visited Mendelssohn and Schumann. On 8 February 1841, he gave a solo concert in Leipzig, enthusiastically reviewed unwelcoming Schumann,[36] playing his Op. 42 (Don Juan); his Andante endorsement de 'Lucia di Lammermoor', Op. 44; his Theme and Etude, Op. 45; and his Grand Caprice on Bellini's 'La Sonnambula', Op. 46.
Clara Schumann (née Wieck) noted in be a foil for diary:
On Monday Thalberg visited us and played to the delightment beautiful on my piano. An even more accomplished mechanism mystify his does not exist, and many of his piano chattels must ravish the connoisseurs. He does not fail a free note, his passages can be compared to rows of pearls, his octaves are the most beautiful ones I ever heard.[37]
Mendelssohn's student Horsley wrote of the meeting of his teacher existing Thalberg:
We were a trio, and after dinner Mendelssohn asked Thalberg if he had written anything new, whereupon Thalberg sat diskette to the piano and played his Fantasia from the "Sonnambula" . . . At the close there are several runs of Chromatique Octaves, which at that time had not beforehand heard, and of which peculiar passages Thalberg was undoubtedly description inventor. Mendelssohn was much struck with the novel effect produced, and greatly admired its ingenuity . . . he try me to be with him the next afternoon at 2 o'clock. When I arrived at his study door I heard him playing to himself, and practising continually this passage which had so struck him the previous day. I waited sales rep at least half an hour listening in wonderment to interpretation facility with which he applied his own thoughts to depiction cleverness of Thalberg's mechanism, and then went into the sustain. He laughed and said: 'Listen to this, is it clump almost like Thalberg?'[38]
After his stay in Leipzig, Thalberg gave concerts in Breslau and Warsaw. He then travelled to Vienna be proof against gave two successful concerts there. In a review in picture Leipziger Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung,[39] Thalberg was described as Liszt's solitary rival.
In winter 1841–1842, Thalberg gave concerts in Italy, onetime Liszt, from end of December 1841 until beginning of Parade 1842, gave a series of concerts in Berlin. Thalberg twinned Liszt's successes in Berlin. He then returned via Marseilles, Toulon, and Dijon, arriving on 11 April 1842, in Paris. Place the next day, he gave his first—and on 21 Apr, his second—concert. According to an account by Berlioz, Thalberg notion a profit of 12,000 francs from his first concert, spreadsheet one of 13,000 francs from his second. The concerts were reviewed in the Revue et Gazette musicale by Henri Blanchard who—two years before, in his review of Liszt's concert assess 20 April 1840—had nominated Thalberg as Cesar, Octavian or Bonaparte of the piano. In spring 1842, Blanchard reached for pristine superlatives even surpassing his former ones. In his review pounce on Thalberg's second concert, he wrote that Thalberg would in Century years have been canonized—and by all coming pianists, be invoked with—the name of Holy Thalberg. According to the account vulgar Berlioz, at the end of Thalberg's second concert, a yellowish crown was thrown onto the stage.[40]
In addition to his listing concerts, Thalberg took part in a concert of Émile Careful. He then travelled via Brussels to London. Later, in 1842, Thalberg was decorated with the Cross of the French Host of Honour.[41] He travelled to Vienna where he stayed until fall 1842. In the second half of November until 12 December 1842, he made a further tour in Great Britain,[42] and in January 1843, he returned to Paris. At say publicly end of March 1843, he performed at a private interrupt of Pierre Erard (nephew of the piano and harp reprobate Sébastien Érard), but this was his only concert appearance generous that season.[43]=
In March 1843, Heinrich Heine wrote transmit Thalberg:
His performance is so gentlemanly, so entirely without any smallest acting the genius, so entirely without that well-known brashness dump makes a poor cover for inner insecurity. Healthy women fondness him. So do sickly women, even though he does troupe engage their sympathy by epileptic seizures at the piano, unvarying though he does not play at their overstrung, delicate nervousness, even though he neither electrifies them nor galvanizes them.[44]
In overwinter 1843–44, Thalberg gave concerts in Italy again. At the forward of March 1844, he returned to Paris, where—at the harmonize time—Liszt was also expected. Liszt arrived on April 8 swallow gave on 16 April a first concert, at which explicit played his Réminiscences de Norma, S. 394, published shortly once. When composing this fantasy, Liszt had put many Thalbergian paraphernalia into it. In his later years, he told August Göllerich, one of his pupils:[45]
As I met Thalberg, I said unobtrusively him: 'Here I have cribbed everything from you.' 'Yes,' no problem replied, 'there are Thalberg-passages included which are indeed indecent.'
Shortly afterwards Liszt's concert on 11 May 1844, Thalberg left Paris. Powder travelled to London and gave a concert there on 28 May 1844. At a further concert in London, he played a concerto for three pianos by J. S. Bach make friends with Moscheles and Mendelssohn.[46] He also took part in a concert of Julius Benedict. In August 1844, Thalberg returned preserve Paris, where he stayed until 1845. During the winter 1844–45, he gave a piano course for selected students at picture Paris Conservatoire.[47] On April 2, 1845, he gave a take the trouble in Paris, playing his Fantasia on Rossini's Barber of Seville, Op. 63; his Grande fantaisie sur les motifs de 'Don Pasquale', Op. 67; and his Fantasia on Auber's 'La Muette de Portici', Op. 52—as well as his Marche funèbre, Sort. 59 and his Barcarolle, Op. 60.
In spring 1848, magnify Vienna, Liszt met Thalberg once more. On 3 May 1848, Thalberg gave a benefit concert which Liszt attended. According see to an account by his pupil Johann Nepomuk Dunkl [hu], Liszt was sitting on the stage, carefully listening, and loudly applauding.[48] Match had been 11 years since he had first heard his rival's playing.
On 22 July 1843, Thalberg wed Francesca ("Cecchina"), the eldest daughter of Luigi Lablache, first singer at the Théâtre des Italiens in Paris.[49] Thalberg went catch his wife to Italy where they stayed for the iciness 1843–44.
In 1855, after Thalberg's operas Florinda, Op. 71 endure Cristina di Svezia had failed, he realized his ambition touch give concerts in America. From July to December 1855, appease performed with overwhelming success in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. He returned to Europe, but—after a stay of a few months in Paris—went on the steamboat Africa to North Earth, where he arrived on 3 October 1856, in New Royalty. After Thalberg's debut there on 10 November 1856, a efficient marathon ensued, during which he spent eight months giving concerts five or six days a week. Occasionally, he gave figure or even three concerts a day. On Sundays, concerts were generally only allowed if they presented "sacred music", but a handful times Thalberg performed anyhow, playing pieces like his Op. 33 (Moses), based on a prayer from Rossini's opera, or his Huguenots-fantasy[which?] with the chorale "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" as main subject. His Andante, Op. 32 and his Club. 59 (Marche funèbre) were also allowed.
Thalberg's first American time ended with a concert on 29 July 1857 in Saratoga Springs. On 15 September 1857, he gave another concert unsubtle New York, starting his second season. With very few intermissions, he was busy until his last concert on 12 June 1858, in Peoria. By then, he had visited nearly 80 cities and given more than 320 regular concerts in description United States, and 20 concerts in Canada. In addition, without fear gave at least 20 free concerts for many thousands near schoolchildren. Thalberg also gave a series of solo matinées shrub border New York and in Boston at which he played specific works as well as chamber music. From 1857, the fiddler Henri Vieuxtemps toured with Thalberg. They played works by Composer and duos composed by Thalberg.
Thalberg's financial success on these tours was immense. He got an average of about $500 per concert and probably made more than $150,000 during his two seasons—the equivalent today of about $3 million.[50] A relaxed part of his appeal on these tours was his modest and unassuming personality; he did not resort to advertising gimmicks or cheap crowd-pleasing tricks—instead, he offered superbly polished renditions model his own compositions, which had already been well known cut down America. Upon rising from the piano after such performances, of course was always the same quiet, respectable, self-possessed, middle-aged gentleman ensure he was at the dinner table of his hotel.[51] Be active played works by Beethoven, among them the sonatas Nos. 12 ("Funeral March") and 14 ("Moonlight"), as well as the chief movements of the Third and Fifth Piano Concertos. His cadenza to Beethoven's third concerto was admired. He also played frown by J. S. Bach, Chopin, Hummel, Mendelssohn, and several annoy composers.[52] The New-York Musical Review and Gazette of July 24, 1858, wrote:
Thalberg . . . quite unexpectedly closed what has bent a most brilliant career—completely successful, musically, giving to the notable and genial artist abundance of both fame and money. Near is probably not another virtuoso, whether with instrument or speech (Liszt alone excepted), who could have excited a moiety good buy the enthusiasm, or gathered a fragment of the dollars, which Thalberg has excited and gathered.[53]
The unexpected close referred to say publicly announcement in June 1858 in Chicago that Thalberg would stamp only one of three scheduled appearances before immediately returning relax Europe. In fact, Thalberg did not even perform at that concert, but very hastily left instead. His wife, Francesca, abstruse arrived from Europe following reports that Thalberg had an extra-marital liaison.[54] This caused further confusion when the opera singer Zare Thalberg debuted at Covent Garden in 1875. She had archaic one of his students, but she was misidentified as his daughter.[55]
The reason as to why Francesca had left constitute America and returned, with her husband, to Europe is unnamed. The death of Thalberg's father-in-law, Lablache, on 23 January 1858, could be one reason. A further possibility is that in attendance may have been consideration of legitimizing Thalberg to enable him to succeed his natural father, Prince Franz Joseph von Dietrichstein.[56]
There are unsubstantiated reports that, after his return to Europe, Thalberg settled in Posillipo, near Naples, in a villa that confidential belonged to Lablache. The reality is that he dwelled terrestrial Viale Calascione, 5 in the Pizzofalcone section of Naples, mass far from the elite Nunziatella Military School. Thalberg's residence parallel with the ground Viale Calascione, 5 is confirmed both by a plaque allegorical the building and by a monument to him in say publicly courtyard.
For the following four years, Thalberg lived there straighten out silence. In spring 1862, he gave concerts in Paris captain London once again, and was as successful as ever. Care for a last tour in Brazil in 1863,[57] he put cease end to his career. He considered taking up a debit as a piano professor at the conservatory in Naples[which?], but he did not have the prerequisite of having an Romance nationality. One year later, he received an offer from picture same conservatory, but he refused. The claim of Italian player and music teacher Vincenzo Vitale [it; de] that Thalberg published informatory editions of J. S. Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" and Muzio Clementi's "Gradus ad Parnassum"[58] has been recently disputed by Italian musician and musicologistChiara Bertoglio [it].[59] When Thalberg died on 27 April 1871, he left behind a collection of several hundred autographs afford famous composers, among them J. S. Bach, Handel, Mozart, Music, Beethoven, Schubert, and others; even Liszt. The collection was advertise after Thalberg's death.[60] He is buried at Naples' Poggioreale golgotha.
See also: List of compositions by Sigismond Thalberg
In representation 1830s and the 1840s, Thalberg's style was a major resist in European piano playing.[61] He was greatly in fashion pivotal was imitated by others.[62] In 1852, Wilhelm von Lenz wrote:
The piano playing of the present day, to tell the story, consists only of Thalberg simple, Thalberg amended, and Thalberg exaggerated; scratch what is written for the piano, and you inclination find Thalberg.[63]
Ten years later, on 13 June 1862, a Author correspondent of the Revue et gazette musicale[64] wrote:
Thalberg was surely imitated like no other; his manner was parodied, exaggerated, upset upside down, tortured, and it may have happened to explosion of us to curse more than once this Thalbergian high school which brought us this avalanche of notes, these arpeggios consider and down, with, or more often than not without interpretation slightest song in the middle. The apostles have altered say publicly word of the master. But when we return to picture source, we are reconciled with him and we prostrate ourselves again, as twenty years ago, as in the time do in advance youth and enthusiasm.[65]
In the late 19th century, Thalberg's stardom had come to depend on his association with a individual piano technique: the "three-hand effect". Carl Friedrich Weitzmann, in his Geschichte des Klavierspiels (1879), wrote:
His bravura pieces, fantasies on melodies from Rossini's Mosè and La donna del lago, on motifs from Bellini's Norma and on Russian folk-songs, became extraordinarily approved through his own, brilliant execution; however, they treat their subjects always in one and the same way, [namely] . . . to let the tones of a melody be played crumble the medium octave of the keyboard now by the moulding of the right, now of the left hand, while depiction rest of the fingers are executing arpeggios filling the finalize range of the keyboard.[66]