Rafael Joseffy

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Rafael Joseffy (July 3, 1852–June 25, 1915) was a pianist and composer.

He studied in Budapest with Brauer, the teacher of Stephen Heller. In 1866 he went to Leipzig, where his teachers were Ignaz Moscheles and Ernst Friedrich Wenzel. In 1868 he became a pupil of Carl Tausig in Berlin, remaining with him for two years. Later he spent two summers with Franz Liszt in Weimar.

He made his debut in Berlin in 1872 and was immediately acclaimed as a master pianist of great brilliance. He moved to the United States in 1879, where he lived in New York in the winter and at Tarrytown on the Hudson in the summer. His style was broad and comprehensive, yet his playing had a certain incisiveness.

In his earlier years he produced numerous popular compositions for the pianoforte. Later in life he virtually retired from the concert platform and devoted his attention to teaching. He was a very reserved man. Henry Wolfsohn claimed to have offered Joseffy huge sums for concert tours but the pianist found concert life so severe upon his nerves that he would not accept. He preferred the smaller income of the teacher to the glare of the footlights. Joseffy continued to care absolutely nothing for fame or applause. To him his art was supreme and other things mattered little.

This article is based on a text from the Etude magazine, prior to 1923, that is in the public domain.