1862–1946 · United States, Poland
Moriz Rosenthal (1862–1946) was a pianist who was born in Lviv and died in New York. He studied with Karol Mikuli, Rafael Joseffy and Franz Liszt, toured widely, made recordings and taught. Charles Rosen, Robert Goldsand and Jorge Bolet studied with him. The site has one edition of his for solo piano.
Moriz Rosenthal was born in Lviv in December 1862. His father, Leon Rosenthal, was a teacher from Kamianets-Podilskyi, and his mother, Augusta Kanner, came from Tysmenytsia. Moriz's sister, Marie Rosenthal-Hatschek, became a painter.
His first music teacher was Wenzel Galat, a viola player at the city theatre. From 1872 Rosenthal studied with Karol Mikuli, a former assistant of Chopin, and took from him the graceful legato so typical of Chopin.
In 1875 Rosenthal went on with his studies in Vienna under Rafael Joseffy. Joseffy arranged the first Vienna concert for his 13-year-old pupil and accompanied him himself on a second piano.
In 1876 Rosenthal set out on his first tour, to Romania. He was a great success at the princely court, and at the wish of Princess Elisabeth he was named court pianist. According to tradition, Russian Emperor Alexander II heard him play there and invited him to perform in St Petersburg.
In the late eighteen-seventies Rosenthal took lessons from Franz Liszt in Weimar and Rome. After that he put his concert career aside for a while to attend the University of Vienna, convinced that a performer needs a broad classical education.
At the university he studied philosophy with Franz Brentano and aesthetics with Eduard Hanslick. In 1886 Rosenthal returned to regular concert life and had a success in Leipzig.
His first tours of the United States fell in the late 1880s. One of the appearances in New York was a joint concert with the 14-year-old Fritz Kreisler. In 1895 Rosenthal performed in England.
In 1890 Rosenthal published a book of exercises, the Schule des höheren Klavierspiels, put together with Ludwig Schytte. In 1912 he received the title of chamber virtuoso to the Austrian emperor, and on 11 November 1934 he was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit.
Many leading musicians of his day were his friends and colleagues: Isaac Albéniz, Jules Massenet, Camille Saint-Saëns, Hans von Bülow, Anton Rubinstein, Johann Strauss and Johannes Brahms.
Rosenthal was on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 1926–1928, and from 1939 he ran his own piano school in New York. Charles Rosen, Robert Goldsand and Jorge Bolet were among his students.
Between 1928 and 1942 he recorded about three hours of music for several record companies. Piano rolls from the American Piano Company (Ampico) also exist.
From 1920 Rosenthal was married to his pupil Hedwig Löwi, who was also a piano teacher. He toured the world until the end of the 1930s, and in January 1937, aged 74, he was playing in the United States again.
After the Anschluss Rosenthal stayed on in New York. In his last years he suffered from Parkinson's disease. He died there on 3 September 1946.
Rosenthal was a pianist, and one description also calls him a composer. Among what he published is the Schule des höheren Klavierspiels, a book of exercises from 1890 compiled with Ludwig Schytte. His arrangement of Chopin's Minute Waltz is mentioned as well.
His playing can be heard on records made between 1928 and 1942 for labels including Columbia and RCA Victor, as well as Edison, Ultraphon and EMI, about three hours in all. Some of these discs are frequently placed among the best piano recordings of that period. In 2006 Indiana University Press published Rosenthal's autobiographical texts under the title In Word and Music; the CD enclosed with it has recordings never issued before.
The site has an edition called "moritz papillons" for solo piano, at the level "Medium+". It is a place to start with this composer.