Sigismond Thalberg

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Thalberg, Sigismond

Born Jan. 7, 1812, in Geneva; died Apr. 27, 1871, in Posillipo. Austrian pianist.

Thalberg gave concerts in many countries and performed in Russia in 1839. He was known for the melodious tone of his music and for his brilliant technique. Thalberg’s contemporaries (1830’s), including H. Heine, considered him one of the three greatest pianists in the world, along with Chopin and Liszt. Thalberg’s music, representative of salon piano music, was contrasted with Liszt’s new, dramatic art, which was rich in content and ideas. Liszt, however, emerged victorious from his famous competition with Thalberg in Paris in 1837, and also the subsequent “war” between the followers of the two. As a result, Thalberg’s works, including salon piano pieces, transcriptions, and fantasias with operatic themes, lost much of their significance.

References in periodicals archive ?

Dubbed Europe's "Queen of the Piano," she was considered the peer of keyboard giants Sigismond Thalberg, Franz Liszt and Anton Rubinstein.

Celebrating Clara A 200TH Birthday Tribute To "The Other Schumann"

Notable are the accounts of Liszt's rivalry with Sigismond Thalberg and tumultuous relationship with Marie d'Agoult.

Franz Liszt: Musician, Celebrity, Superstar

He traces the development of pianistic culture from Frederic Chopin through Franz Liszt to Ignaz Paderewski, with intriguing sojourns into the careers of figures as diverse as Anton Rubinstein, Sigismond Thalberg, Vladimir de Pachmann, Theodor Leschetizky, Josef Hofmann, Moriz Rosenthal, and Ferruccio Busoni, along with possibly less-remembered names such as Friedrich Kalkbrenner and Malwine Bree.

After the Golden Age: Romantic Pianism and Modern Performance

Liszt caught his era's mood by treating Beethoven's body of works as sacred, unlike his archrival Sigismond Thalberg, who committed the ultimate musical sacrilege of paraphrasing the Beethoven symphonies (p.

Liszt as Transcriber

(1.) Sigismond Thalberg transcribed "Casta Diva" for solo piano and published it as his Op.

Chopin: the voice of the piano

All the fashionable pianists including Franz Liszt and Sigismond Thalberg made appearances in the elite Parisian salons where musical and social life were closely linked to one another.

Frederic Chopin: the reluctant virtuoso

As an extraordinarily gifted pianist nurtured in the curriculum of the conservatoire, Alkan receded into the shadows of the Parisian musical scene as ostensibly more compelling characters like Franz Liszt, Sigismond Thalberg, and a host of other foreign virtuosos brought Parisian audiences to their feet.

Charles Valentin Alkan: His Life and His Music

Whereas Herz had performed almost two hundred concerts in more than fifty cities and towns, Sigismond Thalberg (1812-1871) played approximately 340 concerts in at least 78 locations in the United States and Canada during his sojourn here a decade later (1856-58).

From Paris to Peoria: How European Piano Virtuosos Brought Classical Music to the American Heartland

Hector Berlioz, reportedly moved to tears by the harmonium playing of Sigismond Thalberg, composed his only three keyboard pieces for the instrument in 1845.

Cesar Franck. (Keyboard Music)

1850s The Swedish soprano Jenny Lind makes many tours, beginning in 1850; the German soprano Henriette Sontag tours from 1852 to 1854; pianists Henri Herz and Sigismond Thalberg tour from 1845 to 1851 and from 1856 to 1857, respectively, resulting in much greater emphasis on the virtuoso performer and a consequent fissure between professional and amateur music-making and between concert and popular music.