Part 9 (1/2)

He was accustomed to say that the breath of the concert-room stifled hihted in it as a war-horse delights in the tumult of battle Chopin always shrank from the display of his powers as a mere executant To exhibit his talents to the public was an offense to him, and he only cared for his re his fanciful original poereatest difficulty that his intimate friends, Liszt, Meyerbeer, Nourrit, Delacroix, Heine, Moult, and others, could persuade hienius only shone unconstrained as a player in the society of a few chosen intimate friends, hom he felt a perfect sympathy, artistic, social, and intellectual Exquisite, fastidious, and refined, Chopin was loss an aristocrat from political causes, or even by virtue of social caste, than from the fact that his art nature, which was delicate, feminine, and sensitive, shrank from all companions except those molded of the finest clay We find this sense of exclusiveness and isolation in all of the Chopin music, as in some quaint, fantastic, ideal world, whose master would draw us up to his sphere, but never descend to ours

In the treatment of the technical means of the piano-forte, he entirely wanders froreat players, gave it up in despair, and confessed that he could not play Chopin's ers to serve his own artistic uses, without regard to the notions of the schools It is said that M Kalkbrenner advised Chopin to attend his classes at the Paris Conservatoire, that the latterChopin answered his officious adviser by placing one of his own ”etudes” before hi him to play it The failure of the pompous professor was ludicrous, for the old-established technique utterly failed to do it justice Chopin's end as a player was to faithfully interpret the poetry of his own coht him to make innovations in piano-forte effects He was thus not only a great inventor as a coards the technique of the piano-forte

He not only told new things orth hearing which the world would not forget, but devised neays of saying them, and it mattered but little to him whether his more forcible and passionate dialectic offended what Schumann calls musical Philistinism or no Chopin forenius, though as Schumann, in the extract previously quoted, justly says: ”He was molded by the deep poetic spirit of Beethoven, hom form only had value as it expressed truthfully and beautifully symmetry of conception”

The forrew out of the keyboard of the piano, and their _genre_ is so peculiar that it is nearly impracticable to transpose them for any other instrument Some of the noted contemporary violinists have attempted to transpose a few of the Nocturnes and etudes, but without success Both Schuanini's most complex and difficult violin works for the piano-forte, but the compositions of Chopin are so essentially born to and of the one instrument that they can not be well suited to any other The cast of the enious treath which the motives are developed, make up a new chapter in the history of the piano-forte

Liszt, in his life of Chopin, says of him: ”His character was indeed not easily understood A thousand subtile shades,each other, rendered it almost undecipherable at first view; kind, courteous, affable, and almost of joyous itated him to be ever suspected His works, concertos, waltzes, sonatas, ballades, polonaises, ma in a most poetical and romantic form”

Chopin's moral nature was not cast in an heroic mold, and he lacked the robust intellectual enius in art as well as in literature and affairs, though it is not safe to believe that he was, as painted by George Sand and Liszt, a feeble youth, continually living at death's door in an atmosphere of moonshi+ne and sentimentality But there can be no question that the whole bent of Chopin's teenius was ives us mere musical moods and reveries, instead of well-defined and well-developed ideas Hisof the clear, inspiring, vigorous quality of other great coestive beauty all its own

The personal life of Chopin was singularly interesting His long and intie Sand; the circumstances under which it was formed; the blissful idyl of the lovers in the isle of Majorca; the awakening fro circu out of a close association as best in Parisian art and life, invest the career of the man, aside from his art, withtouched on these phases of Chopin's life at soth in a previous volume of this series, wethis ih to say that the present generation has ment of his own as to the unique and wonderful beauty of his coramme is considered complete without one or h there are but few pianists, even in a day when Chopin as a stylist has been a study, who can do his subtile and wonderful fancies justice, there is no composer for the piano-forte who so fascinates theone of the Greatest of Executants--Bather a Man of Remarkable Talents than of Genius--Moscheles's Description of hiitimate Son of an Austrian Prince--Early Introduction to Musical Society in London and Vienna--Beginning of his Career as a Virtuoso--The Brilliancy of his Career--Is appointed Court Pianist to the Ee--Visits to A's Artistic Idiosyncrasy--Robert Schu--His Appearance and Manner--Characterization by George Willia's Style and Worth as an Artist--His Pianoforte Method, and Place as a Composer for the Piano--Gott-schalk's Birth and Early Years--He is sent to Paris for Instruction--Successful _Debut_ and Public Concerts in Paris and Tour through the French Cities--Friendshi+p with Berlioz--Concert Tour to Spain--Romantic Experiences--Berlioz on Gottschalk--Reception of Gottschalk in America--Criticism of his Style--Remarkable Success of his Concerts--His Visit to the West Indies, Mexico, and Central America--Protracted Absence--Gottschalk on Life in the Tropics--Return to the United States--Three Brilliant Musical Years--Departure for South Ah the Spanish-American Cities--Death at Rio Janeiro--Notes on Gottschalk as Man and Artist

I

One of the reat piano-forte virtuosos was unquestionably Sigis, an artist who made a profound sensation in two hee space in the inally a disciple of the Viennese school of piano-forte playing, a pupil of Mosche-les, and a rigid believer inthe instrument which was the medium of his talent sufficient unto itself, wholly indifferent to the daring and boundless areat rival, Franz Liszt, pile Pelion on Ossa in his grasp after new effects, Thalberg developed virtuoso-isree by a ers can not express ive to their skill, and Thalberg, with all his ienius It goes without saying, to those who are faenius is often applied in a very loose andmanner But, in all estimates of art and artists, where there are two clearly defined factors, iination or formative power and technical dexterity, it would see on the propriety of such a word as a ifts The lack of the creative i's work, whether as player or composer But the ability to execute all that caence was so prodigious that the world was easily dazzled into forgetting his deficiencies in the loftier regions of art Trifles are often very significant What, for example, could more vividly portray an artist's tendencies than the description of Thalberg by Moscheles, who knew hihly than any other conteenre_ as an artist than with the inality of Chopin and Liszt Moscheles writes:

”I find his introduction of harp effects on the piano quite original

His theht out clearly in relief with an accoios which reminds me of a harp The audience is a as he sits at the piano is soldierlike; his lips are tightly compressed and his coat buttoned closely He tolda Turkish pipe while practicing his piano-forte exercises: the length of the tube was so calculated as to keep him erect and motionless” This exact discipline and mechanism were not ical outcome of the man and surely a part of hi was so great that heand brilliant figures of an age fecund in fine artists

Thalberg was born at Geneva, January 7,1812, and was the natural son of Prince Dietrichstein, an Austrian nobleman, temporarily resident in that city His talent for music, inherited from both sides, for his mother was an artist and his father an amateur of no inconsiderable skill, becaenerally holds in ifts display themselves at an early period These indications of nature were not ignored, for the boy was placed under instruction before he had coular that his first teacher was not a pianist, though a very superiorwas one of the first bassoonists of his tihly acco was accustomed to attribute the wonderfully rich andto the influence and training of Mittag Froreat pianist passed to the charge of the distinguished Hue, but ranked by his adenius for pianoforte coenerations have discredited his for him e under Hummel, he studied the theory of music with Sie, for Thalberg must have been less than ten years old, he i and the instinctive ease hich heAt the age of fourteen young Thalberg went to London in the household of his father, who had been appointed iland, and the youth was then placed under the instruction of the great pianist Moscheles The latter speaks of Thalberg as the , even at that age, already an artist of distinction and mark It was a source of much pleasure to Moscheles that his brilliant scholar, who played nized by the _dilletante_ public generally, but by such veteran artists as Clementi and Cramer

Moscheles, in his diary, speaks of the wonderful brilliancy of a grand fancy dress ball given by Thalberg's princely father at Covent Garden Theatre Pit, stalls, and prosceniurand room, in which the crowd promenaded The costuorgeous description The spectators, in full dress, sat in the boxes; on the stage was a court box, occupied by the royal fa for small parties of dancers ”You will have some idea,” wrote Mme Moscheles, in a letter, ”of the crowd at this ball, when I tell you that we left the ballrooe till four” One of the interesting features of this ball was that the boy Thalberg played in one of the suished people present, including the royal fa in to hear the youthful virtuoso, whose tacit recognition by his father had already opened to hi did not i to Vienna in 1827, played continually at private soirees, where he had the advantage of being heard and criticised by the foremost amateurs and musicians of the Austrian capital It had soreat player was about to be launched on his career The following year the young artist tried his hand at composition, for he published variations on themes fro in after-years spoke of all his youthful productions with disdain, but his early works displayed not a little of the brilliant style of treatave his fantasias a special place a compositions for the piano-forte

It was not till 1830 that young Thalberg fairly began his career as a traveling player The cities of Germany received him with the most _eclatant_ admiration, and his feats of skill as a performer were tru unprecedented in the art of pianisland, and his audiences were no less pronounced in their recognition Liszt had already been before him in Paris, and Chopin arrived about the sa, but the splendid, cal's style instantly captivated the public, and elicited the hted applause not only frohtened connoisseurs

To follow the course of Thalberg's pianoforte achieveh Europe would be merely to repeat a record of uninterrupted successes He disarmed envy and criticism everywhere, and even those disposed to withhold a frank and generous acknowledgreatness did not dare to question powers of execution which see composed a concerto for piano and orchestra, to play at his concerts But this species of composition was so obviously unsuited to his abilities that he quickly forsook it, and thenceforward devoted his efforts exclusively to the instrument of which he was such an eminent master A more extensive ambition had been rebuked in more ways than one He composed two operas, ”Fiorinda” and ”Christine,” and of course easily yielded to the entreaties of his admirers to have them produced But it was clearly evident that his nificent of its kind, was lie, and after the failure of his operas and atte cal was appointed pianist of the Imperial Chamber to the court of Austria, and accompanied the Emperor Ferdinand to Toplitz, where a convocation of the European sovereigns took place His performances armly received by the asseratulations Thalberg's way throughout the whole of his life was streith roses, and, though his career did not present the same romantic incidents which make the life of Franz Liszt so picturesque, it was attended by the saift of a fine estate, fronificent city mansion in Vienna, and testimonials, like snuff-boxes set with diamonds, jeweled court-swords, superbly set portraits of his royal and imperial patrons, and costly jewelry, poured in on him continually Imperial orders from Austria and Russia were bestowed on hiood fortune which had been auspicious to him from his very birth In 1845, while still in the service of the Austrian eh the principal European cities, Thalberghohter of the great singer Lablache, Muished French painter of that nah scandal, which loves to busy itself about the affairs of 's name with several of the hter of this e, made her _debut_ with considerable success in London, in 1874

Thalberg's first visit to Aain in 1857, to more than repeat the enthusiastic reception hich he was greeted byAmericans Musical culture at that tie which now reater cities as fastidious and intelligent as can be found anywhere in the world But Thalberg's wonderful playing, though lacking in the fire, glow, and impetuosity which would naturally most arouse the less cultivated musical sense, created a _furore_, which has never beenthose who specially prided thees He extended both tours to Cuba, Mexico, and South Aains than he had everthe latter years of Thalberg's life he spent ant ease at his fine country estate near Naples, only giving concerts at soest European capitals, like London and Paris He becaained a medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1867 Many of his best piano-forte coiven up the active pursuit of virtuosoism His works comprise a concerto, three sonatas, many nocturnes, rondos, and etudes, about thirty fantasias, two operas, and an instruction series, which latter has been adopted bya number of able pupils This fine artist died at his Neapolitan estate, April 27, 1871

II

Thalberg had but little sympathy with the dreamy romanticism which found such splendid exponents, while he was yet in his early youth, in Schuher functions he seemed to lack A certain opulence and picturesqueness of fancy united in his artistic being with an intelligence both lucid and penetrating, and a sense of form and syue, passionate aspiration, the sensibility that quivers with every breath of movement frorace, and repose he had in perfection Yet he was very highly appreciated by those who had little in common with his artistic nature As, for exa, on the occasion of a charity concert, given in Leipzig in 1841: ”In his passing flight the el's pinions in one of Rucker's poems, rubies and other precious stones fell froent hands, as thenew of one who has been so praise beshow-ered as he has But every earnest virtuoso is glad to hear one thing said at any tihted us This best of all praise we are conscientiously able to bestow on Thalberg; for, during the last two years that we have not heard hi additions to his acquirerace, and freedo seeht that he probably feels in it hi more than mere flexibility and execution: a it becomes clear to all that he is one of the favored ones of fortune, one accustoance Acco pleasure, he commenced his career; under such circumstances he has so far pursued it, and so he will probably continue it The whole of yesterday evening and every nuave us a proof of this The public did not seee, but only to enjoy; they were as certain of enjoy in his appearance had none of the traditional wild picturesqueness of style and uished artists, even Liszt hiree of affectation S, his handso face co, he ont to seat hi any co He had the air of one who respected himself, his art, and the public His perforentleuished Ae William Curtis, who heard him in New York in 1857, thus wrote of him: ”He is a proper artist in this, that he comprehends the character of his instrument He neither treats it as a violoncello nor a full orchestra Those who in private have enjoyed the pleasure of hearing--or, to use a --Strepitoso, that friend of mankind, play the piano, will understand ethe piano as if it were an orchestra Strepitoso stor the keyboard until the tortured instruives up its musical soul in despair and breaks its heart of s Every instrument has its limitations, but Strepitoso will tolerate no such theory He extractsthe sands for gold, but as if he were raking oysters Now, Thalberg's manner is different from Strepitoso's He plays the piano; that is the phrase which describes his performance He plays it quietly and suavely