e
followers of Thalberg, nor were some of the older ones slow in profiting
by his example. The most taking of the effects which Thalberg brought
into vogue was the device of placing the melody in the middle--i.e.,
the most sonorous part of the instrument--and dividing it so between the
hands that they could at the same time accompany it with full chords
and brilliant figures. Even if he borrowed the idea from the harpist
Parish-Alvars, or from the pianist Francesco G. Pollini, there remains
to him the honour of having improved the invention of his forerunners
and applied it with superior ability. His greatness, however, does not
solely or even mainly rest on this or any other ingeniously-contrived
and cleverly-performed trick. The secret of his success lay in the
aristocratic nature of his artistic personality, in which exquisite
elegance and calm self-possession reigned supreme. In accordance with
this fundamental disposition were all the details of his style of
playing. His execution was polished to the highest degree; the evenness
of his scales and the clearness of his passages and embellishments could
not be surpassed. If sensuous beauty is the sole end of music, his touch
must be pronounced the ideal of perfection, for it extracted the essence
of beauty. Strange as the expression "unctuous sonorousness" may sound,
it describes felicitously a quality of a style of playing from which
roughness, harshness, turbulence, and impetuosity were altogether
absent. Thalberg has been accused of want of animation, passion, in
short, of soul; but as Ambros remarked with great acuteness--

Thalberg's compositions and playing had soul, a salon soul to
be sure, somewhat like that of a very elegant woman of the
world, who, nevertheless, has really a beautiful disposition
[Gemueth], which, however, is prevented from fully showing
itself by the superexquisiteness of her manners.

This simile reminds me of a remark of Heine's, who thought that Thalberg
distinguished himself favourably from other pianists by what he (Heine)
felt inclined to call "his musical conduct [Betragen]." Here are some
more of the poet-critic's remarks on the same subject:--

As in life so also in art, Thalberg manifests innate tact;
his execution is so gentlemanlike, so opulent, so decorous,
so entirely without grimace, so entirely without forced
affectation of genius [forcirtes Genialthun], so entirely
without that boastful boor