the pedal when the hands are raised, or there is no continuity of sound. Even Liszt
achieved his triumphs in spite of a bad use of pedal. The discovery of the syncopated
pedal was the most important one in the history of playing. It was the emancipation of
the wrist and arms from the keyboard. It brought an orchestral and cantilena playing that
raised the piano to the highest rank among instruments’.
Rosenthal & Liszt
During the hundredth anniversary of Franz Liszt’s birth in 1911, Moriz Rosenthal
contributed an article ‘Franz Liszt, Memories and Reflections’ to ‘Die Musik’ in which
he recalled his studies with Liszt:
‘In October of 1876, as a youngster of thirteen, I played for Franz Liszt during one of his
frequent visits to the Schottenhof in Vienna, and I was admitted to his much envied
entourage as perhaps the youngest of his disciples. At that time his highly promising
evaluation sounded like words of magic which seemed to open wide the gates of the
future and art, and I followed him, the great musician, to Weimar, Rome, and Tivoli,
where he stayed at the Villa d’Este as a guest of Cardinal Hohenlohe.’
Among those with Liszt at the time and in the following years were, as Rosenthal listed
them: Ansorge, Friedheim, Lutter, Reisenauer, Sauer, Siloti, and later Lamond,
Stavenhagen and Thomán.
‘In Tivoli, near Rome I was fortunate to be his only student and to receive daily
instruction in the fall of 1878. Every afternoon I appeared at the Villa d’Este, where I
found the master composing either in his study or sometimes on the terrace, where he was
gazing forlornly into the blue. The glowing Roman autumn, the picturesque beauty of the
area, the Master’s noble instruction – all these things blended into an ecstasy which I still
feel today.’
Despite his youth, Rosenthal mastered the Paganini Variations of Brahms, one of his
most celebrated interpretations. To the young Rosenthal, Liszt described Brahms as ‘not
exciting and very hygienic.’ Rosenthal told an interviewer:
‘Liszt did not think that Brahms had much freshness of invention. He thought it was
elaborate and artificial. He once told me that he missed a certain excitement in the music
of Brahms. He used the Latin word “saluber” – healthy, “gesund” – to describe it. He
said “it does not make you ill, it does not make you excited, it does not give you a fever.”
To Liszt it was the music of bourgeois contentment. Nevertheless, when I brought the
Paganini variations to him soon afterwards, he praised their polyrhythm and said: “They
are better than my Paganini études: however, they were written much later and after
knowing mine.”
While Liszt’s masterclasses had eager opportunitists and mediocre talents, his private
teaching was far from casual. Liszt was great. There is no question about that. He could
stir you up – in German we say “anregen”. Besides, he would interrupt you at any