Louis Engel

“ Thalberg was essentially the pianist of the French, who in art, politics, and life, have only one desire, 'Autre chose!' He was therefore continually forced to devise some surprising effect, and thereby to find at every moment 'autre chose.' Schumann, who knew human nature well, says that to criticise Thalberg would be to risk a revolt of all the French, German, and foreign girls. ”

“ His innovations on the piano were of the smallest possible importance; he invented forms and effects. He had wonderfully formed fingers, the forepart of which were real little cushions. This formation and very persevering study enabled Thalberg to produce such wonderful legatos, that Liszt said of him, 'Thalberg is the only artist, who can play the violin on the keyboard.' When he played for the first time in public, at Vienna, 1829, his touch and expression at once conquered the audience, but even then principally the ladies. ”

“ Forty years ago photography had not reached its present place in artistic life—at least not portrait photography—and the likenesses of artists depended on the engraver: witness the wonderful portrait of Jenny Lind engraved at that date. At Vienna that was the grand time for the lithographers. Kaiser and the famous Kriehuber made the most successful portraits both of Thalberg and Liszt, especially of the latter, who courted advertisement of any kind, as much as Thalberg treated it infra dignitatem. ”

“ A catalogue at the end of this article gives a list of his piano compositions. It comprises more than ninety numbers, many of which earned glory and money for their author, and stamped him as a specialist for his instrument, the combined effects of which nobody had ever better understood. Robert Schumann was one of the composers for whom Thalberg entertained a perfect enthusiasm, although their natures both as musicians and men widely differed. ”

“ It is undeniable that until 1830 the performers of Mozart, Beethoven, Hummel, Moscheles, etc., submitted their talent to the interpretation of the composer, whereas afterwards the sacrifice of the composer to the virtuoso became the fashion.
Thalberg married, not, as Fétis states, in 1845, but in 1843, at Paris, Mme. Boucher, the daughter of the famous Lablache, and widow of a painter of merit. He travelled through Belgium, Holland, England, and Russia in 1839, and Spain 1845, went to Brazil in 1855, North America 1856, and settled in Posilipo (Naples) in 1858. ”

“ That makes them grateful to play and pleasing to the ear. It has been said of the 'Etudes' that they are graceful work for ladies, 'for the tepid temperature of the drawing-room, not for the healthy atmosphere outside the house.' His studies and his 'Art du chant' are only specimens of what he could do best. ”

“ His smaller works, arrangements of Schubert's songs, Rossini's 'Soirées musicales,' etc., or the little Lucia fantasia—which so pleased Mendelssohn—with its arpeggios and shakes for the left hand excepted, there are very few that le commun des martyrs of the pianist-world could even attempt to play. In his Puritani fantasia and others there are sometimes shakes for the last two fingers, extending over several pages, which he himself played divinely, his shake with the little finger being most stupendous ”