Moriz Rosenthal in Word and Music: A Legacy of the Nineteenth Century

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.