As a pianist, Rosenthal was unparalleled: his legato touch came from Chopin through his pupil Mikuli; his awareness of composition was developed by Liszt; his Brahms interpretation shaped by the composer himself; and his ingeniously crafted piano-paraphrases memorialized his friendship with Johann Strauss II. Yet Rosenthal’s pianistic abilities were married to a rare intellectual erudition?a knowledge of literature, history, philology, science, philosophy, and society that few pianists have ever matched, let alone surpassed.
In these striking pieces, we see every facet of Rosenthal: memoirist, social critic, pedagogue, and virtuoso. He could write with gravity and pathos, yet his famous and sometimes devastating wit is legendary. This volume combines Rosenthal’s writings with critical assessments of the pianist by such contemporaries as Eduard Hanslick, Edward Prime-Stevenson, and Hugo Wolf. It is rounded out with an illuminating preface by Charles Rosen, perhaps Rosenthal’s most renowned pupil; a discography and concertography; and a CD featuring never-before-released Rosenthal recordings.