Word: thalberg
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...great virtuosos at the Princess Cristina Belgiojoso's, that spring of 1837, had been one of the unmistakable successes of the Paris season. The cream of society had crowded the princess' salon to hear famed Franz Liszt outthunder another darling of the day, suave Sigismond Thalberg. If she could enlarge the duel to a multiple piano exhibition, the princess thought, perhaps a goodly sum could be raised for the benefit of her needy Italian compatriots in Paris. So six of the most famous pianists of the day were asked to compose variations on a theme from Bellini...
Chopin was interested. Thalberg agreed. Liszt's old teacher, onetime Beethoven Pupil Carl Czerny, promised to come from Vienna. The others were Thalberg's teacher, Johann Peter Pixis, Pianist-Composer Henri Herz and Liszt himself...
...great night, the glittering audience found six pianos on the stage. First Liszt, nostrils quivering and long locks tossing,* thundered and rippled an introduction and the theme from I Puritani. Then the pianistically mannered Thalberg played his variation; Liszt provided a transition to the offering of Pixis; Herz came next, then Czerny, whose knuckle-cracking exercises have been the nemesis of piano students for the last hundred years. Liszt, from his piano, interjected a Fuocoso molto energico; the slender Chopin added an exquisite largo. At last, in his finale, Liszt wittily and skillfully parodied the styles of the others-except...
Best producer: MGM's late Production Boss Irving Thalberg...