Verdi’s Rigoletto, with its story of seduction and deception at the court of the Duke of Mantua, culminating in a murder attempt that goes horribly wrong, was most famous for the Duke’s philandering song, La donna è mobile. In his

The now-forgotten genre of ‘fantasy of operatic themes’ was very important in the 19th century – it served a double duty of preserving the important melodies from favourite operas and also, in the century of the virtuoso, was a showcase

In the preface to his L’art du chant appliqué au piano, the distinguished virtuoso pianist and composer Sigismond Thalberg (1812-1871) states that he took voice lessons from a famous singer in his youth. That famous singer turned out to be

Sigismond Thalberg (1812-1871) devised one of the most illustrious and financially successful careers the world of music had ever seen. He was one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of his day, and he performed almost exclusively his own compositions based

A conundrum which faces all pianists – professional, student or amateur – is how to make the piano, a percussive instrument whose sounds are created by hammers hitting strings, sing. Legato, the technique for creating a joined-up, singing or “cantabile”

“Thalberg is the finest pianist in the world” 150 years ago, on 27 April 1871, the musical world mourned the passing of one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. Sigismond Thalberg (1812-1871) was greatly admired for

The culture of the traveling virtuoso, so prevalent in the first half of the nineteenth century and clearly reincarnated in today’s concert environment in which pianists like Lang Lang play more than 300 concerts a year, brought forth a unique