Moriz Rosenthal’s father was a professor of mathematics at the Lemberg Academy. The family was not musical, and it was not until young Moriz was seven years old that his father bought a piano. Progress for the child was so rapid that a local teacher was sought and at the age of ten, Rosenthal began studies with a pupil of Chopin, Karl Mikuli, who at that time was director of the Lemberg Conservatory. From Mikuli, Rosenthal learnt the secret of a perfect legato as passed to him by Chopin. At the age of eleven, Rosenthal played Chopin’s Rondo for Two Pianos Op. 73 with Mikuli in public.

When his family moved to Vienna in 1875 Rosenthal began lessons with Liszt pupil Rafael Jossefy, learning from him the detached, brilliant technique of the Liszt sc...