Thalberg, Sigismond (Fortuné François) (1812-1871)

Austrian pianist and composer. He travelled widely on concert tours, playing mostly his own compositions. By the 1850s he was pursuing an international career, rivalled only by Liszt as a virtuoso performer.

When he was ten, his father sent him to school in Vienna, where he later studied piano with Hummel and theory with Sechter. He soon played at private parties, appeared at Prince Metternich's house in 1826, and in 1830 made his first tour, in Germany, having by this time begun to publish his compositions. In 1835 he made further studies with Johann Pixis and Friedrich Kalkbrenner in Paris, and in 1836 first appeared in London.

Works Opera Florinda (1851) and Cristina di Suezia (1855).

Works for piano piano concerto; piano sonata, studies, nocturnes, romances, and numerous other pieces for piano, operatic fantasies on works by Rossini, Weber, and Verdi, and other transcriptions for piano.

Other over 50 German songs.