Moriz Rosenthal

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Moriz Rosenthal (December 18, 1862 - September 3, 1946) was a Polish-born American pianist. He was generally considered one of the super-technicians of his day, in the category of Godowsky, Friedman, and Josef Lhevinne.

Rosenthal was born in Lemberg (Lviv), where his father was professor at the chief academy. At eight years of age he commenced his piano studies under Galoth, who did not pay much attention to technical ability, but allowed his pupil the greatest freedom in sight reading, transposition, and modulation. This method is curious, and not to be recommended, though in this case it does not seem to have been harmful.

In 1872, Rosenthal became a pupil of Carl Mikuli, Chopin's pupil and editor, who trained him along more academic lines. On the advice of Rafael Joseffy, Rosenthal, still a lad, was sent to Vienna, where he became a pupil of Joseffy, who gave him a thorough grounding in the method of some Liszt and Mendelssohn. A tour through Romania followed when he was fourteen. In 1878 Rosenthal became a pupil of Liszt, with whom he studied in Weimar and Rome.

As Liszt's pupil, Rosenthal made appearances in St. Petersburg, Paris, and elsewhere. His general education, however, was not neglected, and in 1880 Rosenthal qualified to take the philosophical course at the University of Vienna. Six years later he resumed his career with the piano, achieving brilliant success in Leipzig and subsequently in England in 1895, and later in America, where he also met with success. From 1939, he taught in his own piano school in New York City, where he died in 1946.

Rosenthal recorded less than three hours' worth of music, a pitifully small amount for a pianist of his stature. What he did record, however, is considered some of the most legendary piano-playing on disc.^[1]

One of his most famous pupils is the noted pianist and musicologist Charles Rosen, who relates several anecdotes about him in his book Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist. Another was the pianist Robert Goldsand (1911-1991), who had a long performing and recording career, and taught at the Manhattan School of Music.

An anthology of Rosenthal's autobiographical writings was published as Moriz Rosenthal: In Word and Music. (ed. Mark Mitchell, Allan Evans. Indiana University Press, 2006), which also contains a CD of representative and unpublished recordings.