Carl Filtsch
Carl Filtsch | |
---|---|
Mühlbach, Transylvania | |
Died | 11 May 1845 , Italy | (aged 14)
Nationality | Transylvanian Saxon |
Carl Filtsch (28 May 1830 – 11 May 1845) was a Transylvanian pianist and composer. He was a child prodigy, and student of Frédéric Chopin.[1]
Life and education
Filtsch was born in
Considered Chopin's most talented pupil, Filtsch received high praise from Franz Liszt, Friedrich Wieck, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Ignaz Moscheles, the music critic Ludwig Rellstab, and fellow child prodigy, Anton Rubinstein. Filtsch began touring Europe on concert tours at the age of 13. After triumphant concerts in Paris, London, and Vienna, his promising career was cut short by an early death in Venice from tuberculosis. He is buried in the Protestant section of the San Michele cemetery.
Quality of playing
According to numerous letters from Chopin and his acquaintances, Chopin considered Filtsch the most worthy interpreter of his music. A friend of Chopin, Ferdinand Denis, reported in an article in Vienna's Der Humorist in February 1843 that on one occasion after listening to Filtsch, Chopin exclaimed, "My God! What a child! Nobody has ever understood me as this child has...It is not imitation, it is the same sentiment, an instinct that makes him play without thinking as if it could not have been any other way. He plays almost all my compositions without having heard me [play them], without being shown the smallest thing - not exactly like me [because he has his own cachet], but certainly not less well."[1]
Recordings
- Filtsch, Talberg, Liszt, Chopin: Piano music - Leonhard Westermayr (CD MMS 2616)
- (2010) Mikuli, Teffelsen, Filtsch, Gutmann: Piano music - Naxos8.572344)
- (2011) Mikuli, Teffelsen, Filtsch: Violin & piano music - Naxos8.572460)
- (2012) Tellefsen and Filtsch: Piano Concerto, Concert Piece, Overture - Hubert Rutkowski, Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lukasz Borowicz (Accord 177 2)
- (2016) Carl Filtsch Piano Solo Pieces - Chiyo Hagiwara (ALCD-9161)
References
- ^ ISBN 0-306-80933-8