Rosenthal (Moritz) Unique archive of letters

An extraordinary archive of private correspondence from a direct pupil of Franz Liszt and Karol Mikuli, mainly written in German (with occasional Hungarian references) to various correspondents including close female confidantes ("Liebe Freundin") and prominent male figures in the Viennese press, specifically the noted composer and music critic Josef Heller of the Fremdenblatt, the collection spanning over three decades, offering a rare, unvarnished window into the European classical music scene, programming strategies, financial realities, professional rivalries, and the day-to-day life of a touring virtuoso. Among the topics covered are: the Liszt Competition Controversy (Rosenthal explains his dramatic, eleventh-hour withdrawal from the jury of the prestigious Liszt International Piano Competition in 1933, saying that the committee sent him a booklet, adding, "Should you decline, we request that you return the booklet!" Sensing the immense professional risk of judging peers and friends, he notes, "I seized this way out); Rosenthal disappointment with the Budapest musical landscape (he laments how the local audience fell for cheap tricks, famously proclaiming that the public "preferred Janceling to Champagne."); Rosenthal's professional rivalry with pianist Emil von Sauer, who he compares to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Rosenthal dryly observes that while Goethe prioritised the "representative" over the "purely musical," Sauer—purely from a pianistic standpoint—must be ranked "incomparably higher than the author of Faust" due to his legendary, feather-light finger staccato. He leaves his correspondent with a brilliant musical-literary image: "Let us read 'Faust', but let us not forget Sauer's tender velvet paws [Sammetpfötchen]!"); details of the complex logistics of high-society summer travel, piano transport, and villa rentals across the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Europe (Madonna di Campiglio, Tarasp, Tatra, Abbazia, and the French Riviera), with It features highly amusing, heated complaints about landlords—most notably a legal/financial feud involving a villa rental from a woman he rounds on as the "Mégre, Gerewitsch," whom he accuses of inventory fraud; the stark economic realities of the 1930s musical landscape (Rosenthal indignantly rejects a "generous" offer of 300 Pengő to play on Budapest radio, contrasting it sharply with the premium fees he commanded elsewhere: "In Berlin the radio paid me 1500 Mark, in Vienna 1500 Schilling."); an injury sustained by Rosenthal on the fourth finger of his right hand that left him "completely unable to play" and forced a two-week hiatus, resulting in the painful cancellation of his Budapest winter engagements; 19 letters and one envelope, approximately 42 pages in total, overall very good condition, fold lines from contemporary mailing, occasional minor edge-wear, light age-toning, or historic ink-smudging, v.s., various locations including Vienna, Baden bei Wien, Budapest, Abbazia, Hofgastein, and Cap d'Ail, 1902-1933. (20)

Dimensions:v.s.