Sigismond Thalberg

Early life

Thalberg's early teachers are not documented. Baroness von Wetzlar, his putative mother, was a brilliant amateur pianist and may have given him his first piano instruction. In spring 1826, he studied with Ignaz Moscheles in London; Moscheles later wrote to Felix Mendelssohn that Thalberg already needed no further help to become a great artist. Thalberg's first public performance took place in London on 17 May 1826.

In Vienna on 6 April 1827, he played the first movement of Hummel's Piano Concerto No. 3 in B minor, and on 6 May 1827 he performed the Adagio and Rondo. Thereafter he performed regularly in Vienna, with a repertoire of classical concertos by Hummel, Mozart, and Beethoven, as well as chamber music. In 1827 his Op. 1, a fantasy and variations on melodies from Carl Maria von Weber's Euryanthe, was published by Tobias Haslinger. In 1830 Thalberg met Mendelssohn and Frédéric Chopin in Vienna; their letters indicate that his main strength was his astonishing technical skills.

The 10-year-old Clara Wieck heard him on 14 May 1830 in Leipzig, where he played his Piano Concerto in F minor, Op. 5 and a fantasy of his own. Her diary, edited by her father Friedrich Wieck, described Thalberg as "very accomplished," with clear, precise, strong, and expressive playing. In the early 1830s he studied counterpoint under Simon Sechter, and passages of canon and fugue appear in some fantasies from that period, such as his Grande fantaisie et variations sur 'Norma', Op. 12, published in 1834.

Although popular, it was criticized by Robert Schumann. Thalberg then reduced the counterpoint in his style, and works like the 2 Airs russes variés, Op. 17 were praised by Schumann.

Early virtuoso career

Thalberg arrived in Paris in November 1835. He performed at a private concert of the Austrian ambassador Count Rudolph Apponyi on 16 November 1835, and on 24 January 1836 he played his Grande fantaisie, Op. 22 at a concert of the Society of the Paris Conservatoire concerts. Many prominent artists, including Rossini and Meyerbeer, praised him. Chopin, however, wrote after hearing Thalberg in Vienna that he played splendidly but was not his man, noting that Thalberg pleased the ladies, made potpourris on La Muette, produced piano and forte with the pedal rather than the hand, took tenths as he did octaves, and wore diamond shirt studs.

Hector Berlioz enthusiastically reviewed Thalberg's Conservatoire début in the Revue et gazette musicale of 31 January 1836. Le Ménestrel of 13 March 1836 declared Thalberg the creator of a new art and the premier pianist of the world, as well as an extremely distinguished composer. On 16 April 1836 Thalberg gave his first solo concert in Paris, with sensational success; according to Apponyi's diary, he made a profit of 10,000 francs, a sum no virtuoso had earned from a single concert before.

Liszt, who had heard of Thalberg's successes, compared himself to the exiled Napoleon in a letter to Marie d'Agoult of 29 April 1836. In a review of 8 January 1837, Liszt denigrated Thalberg's compositions.

After Thalberg returned to Paris in early February 1837, a rivalry developed. Liszt gave over a dozen concerts, while Thalberg gave only one on 12 March 1837 at the Paris Conservatoire and another on 2 April 1837. On 31 March 1837 both played at a benefit concert for Italian refugees.

European tours

After a stay in London in May 1837, Thalberg made a short tour of several towns in Great Britain but fell ill and returned to Vienna. In spring 1838 he gave concerts in Paris again; the Revue et gazette musicale of 4 March 1838 noted that his fame had grown, calling him "the most famous of our composers." He left Paris on 18 April 1838 for Vienna, the same day Liszt gave a charity concert there for Hungarian flood victims. Thalberg invited Liszt to dinner, and on 28 April they dined with Prince Moritz Dietrichstein, who was delighted to have "Castor and Pollux" together.

During the evening Thalberg candidly remarked to Liszt that in comparison with him, he had never enjoyed more than a succes d'estime in Vienna. They dined again the next day after Liszt's concert on 29 April 1838, and both were dinner guests of Metternich. Thalberg did not perform during Liszt's stay in Vienna. In October 1838 Thalberg met Schumann, who recorded in his diary that Thalberg played from memory études by Chopin, Joseph Christoph Kessler, and Ferdinand Hiller, as well as works by Beethoven, Schubert, and Dussek, and sight-read Schumann's Kreisleriana, Op. 16.

On 27 November 1838 Thalberg played his new Fantasia on Rossini's 'La Donna del Lago', Op. 40 at a charity concert. At a farewell concert on 1 December 1838 he played three of his 12 Etudes, Op. 26; his Op. 33 (Moses); and his Fantasia on Beethoven's 7th Symphony, Op. 39. Schumann later wrote an enthusiastic review of the second book of Op. 26, concluding "He is a God when sitting at the piano." After his farewell concert in Vienna, Thalberg began his first extended European tour, giving concerts in Dresden on 19 and 21 December 1838 and performing twice at the Court.

First extended tour

Receiving honours from the King of Saxony, he told him, "Wait until you have heard Liszt!" In Leipzig on 28 December 1838, Mendelssohn attended and gave an enthusiastic account in a letter to his sister Fanny, becoming a friend and admirer of Thalberg.

Concerts in America

Thalberg married Francesca ("Cecchina"), eldest daughter of Luigi Lablache, on 22 July 1843, and spent the winter of 1843–44 in Italy with her. After his operas Florinda, Op. 71 and Cristina di Svezia failed, he realized his ambition to give concerts in America. From July to December 1855 he performed with overwhelming success in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. He returned to Europe, then after several months in Paris sailed on the steamboat Africa to North America, arriving in New York on 3 October 1856.

His debut there on 10 November 1856 began a performance marathon: for eight months he gave concerts five or six days a week, occasionally two or three a day. On Sundays, concerts were generally allowed only if they presented "sacred music," but Thalberg performed anyway, playing pieces such as his Op. 33 (Moses), his Huguenots-fantasy with the chorale "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott," and his Andante, Op. 32 and Op. 59 (Marche funèbre). His first American season ended on 29 July 1857 in Saratoga Springs.

He began a second season on 15 September 1857 in New York, and with few intermissions he was busy until his last concert on 12 June 1858 in Peoria. By then he had visited nearly 80 cities, given more than 320 regular concerts in the United States and 20 in Canada, and at least 20 free concerts for schoolchildren. He also gave solo matinées in New York and Boston. From 1857 the violinist Henri Vieuxtemps toured with Thalberg, playing works by Beethoven and duos composed by Thalberg.

Did You Know?

• Thalberg asserted that he was an illegitimate son of Moritz, Prince of Dietrichstein and his mistress Maria Julia Bydeskuty von Ipp.
• According to his birth certificate, he was the son of Joseph Thalberg and Fortunée Stein, both from Frankfurt-am-Main.
• After his return to Europe, Thalberg dwelled at Viale Calascione, 5 in the Pizzofalcone section of Naples, confirmed by a plaque and a monument.