Thalberg: Fantasies on Italian Operas / Les Soirées de Pausilippe, Op. 75 / Piano Concerto in F minor, Op. 5 / Other Piano Works [6 Discs]

Some mystery surrounds the birth and parentage of the virtuoso pianist Sigismond Thalberg, popularly supposed to have been the illegitimate son of Count Moritz Dietrichstein and the Baroness von Wetzlar, born at Pâquis near Geneva in 1812. His birth certificate, however, provides him with different and relatively legitimate parentage, the son of a citizen of Frankfurt, Joseph Thalberg. There seems no particular reason, therefore, to suppose the name Thalberg an invention. Legend, on the other side, provides the story of the Baroness proclaiming him a valley ("Thal") that would one day rise to the heights of a mountain ("Berg"). Thalberg's schooling took him to Vienna, where his fellow-pupil the Duke of Reichstadt, the son of Napoleon, almost persuaded him to a military career. Musical interests triumphed and he was able to study with Simon Sechler and with Mozart's pupil Hummel. In Vienna he performed at private parties, making a particular impression when, as a fourteen-year-old, he played at the house of Prince Metternich. By 1828 he had started the series of compositions that were to prove an important and necessary concomitant of his career as a virtuoso. In 1830 he undertook his first concert tour abroad, to England, where he had lessons from Moscheles. In 1834 he was appointed Kammervirtuose to the Emperor in Vienna and the following year appeared in Paris, where he had lessons from Kalkbrenner and Pixis.