Moriz Rosenthal

A cabinet card portrait of the Polish pianist and composer Moriz Rosenthal (1862-1946). An outstanding pupil of Franz Liszt, he was a friend and colleague of some of the greatest musicians of his age, including Johannes Brahms, Johann Strauss, Anton Rubinstein, Hans von Bülow, Camille Saint-Saëns, Jules Massenet and Isaac Albéniz.

Rosenthal was born in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary (now Lviv, Ukraine), where his father was professor at the academy. When he was eight years old, he commenced his piano studies under Galoth (1869–1872). In 1872, he became a pupil of Karol Mikuli, Chopin's pupil and editor, who trained him along more academic lines at Lviv Conservatory. Rosenthal then studied with Rafael Joseffy, student of Carl Tausig and Liszt. A tour through Romania followed when he was fourteen. In 1878 Rosenthal became a pupil of Liszt, with whom he studied in Weimar and Rome.

As Liszt's pupil, Rosenthal made appearances in St. Petersburg, Paris, and elsewhere. His general education, however, was not neglected, and in 1880 Rosenthal qualified to take the philosophical course at the University of Vienna. Six years later he resumed his career with the piano, achieving brilliant success in Leipzig, and in Boston, where he made his U.S. debut in 1888, and subsequently in England in 1895. From 1939, he taught in his own piano school in New York City, where he died in 1946.

Photographed by the London Stereoscopic Company.