Moriz Rosenthal

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Moriz Rosenthal (December 17, 1862 - September 3, 1946) was an American pianist of Austro-Hungarian origin.

Rosenthal was born in Lemberg (then Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Lviv, Ukraine), 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.

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 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. Rosenthal's own student Charles Rosen, in an interview published in the June 2007 issue of BBC Music Magazine, recalled Rosenthal's having said little of his studies with Liszt except that luring Liszt from the café to the studio at lesson time was a challenge.

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 in Boston, Massachusetts, where he made his U.S. debut in 1888[1], and subsequently in England in 1895. 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. What he did record, however, is considered some of the most legendary piano-playing on disc.[2]

Rosenthal also recorded a large number of Ampico piano rolls.

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.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ New York Times article, "Pianist at 80, Moriz Rosenthal, Who Can Look Back on Long, Distinguished Career," by Olin Downes, December 13, 1942
  2. ^ Cf. Harold Schonberg, The Great Pianists and many other sources.

[edit] External links

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