A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Filtsch, Charles

FILTSCH, Charles, born about 1830 [App. p.636 "July 8, 1830"] at Hermannstadt, Siebenbürgen, Hungary. He appears to have received his earliest regular instruction on the piano from Mittag at Vienna. In 1842 he was in Paris, studying under Chopin and Liszt. In the summer of 43 he came to London (at the same time with Ernst, Halle, Sivori, Dreyschock, and Spohr) [App. p.636 "Omit the parenthesis in lines 7–8, as several of the artists there mentioned had either been in London before, or came later."], and appeared twice in public, once on June 14, at St. James's Theatre, between two of the plays, and again on July 4, at a Matinée of his own at the Hanover Square Rooms. On the latter occasion, besides the Scherzo in B minor and other pieces of Chopin, he played a Prelude and Fugue of Bach's and a piece in A from the 'Temperaments' of Mendelssohn. In the last of these he was peculiarly happy. 'Presto de Mendelssohn,' said Spohr, the moment he saw Filtsch seated at the piano at Sir G. Smart's a few nights after. He also played at Buckingham Palace before the Queen and Prince Albert. He was then 13 years old, and his playing is described as most remarkable both for execution and expression—full at once of vigour and feeling, poetry and passion. (See the Musical Examiner for June 17 and July 8, 1843.) Every one who met him seems to have loved him. He was 'le petit' in Paris, and 'little Filtsch' in London. According to the enthusiastic von Lenz, Chopin said that he played his music better than he himself, while Liszt on one occasion exclaimed 'Quand ce petit voyagera je fermerai boutique.' (Lenz, 'Grosse P.F. Virtuosen,' p. 36; 'Beethoven et ses 3 Styles,' i. 229.) But he was not destined to fulfil the promise of so brilliant a childhood—the blade was too keen for the scabbard; and, as Moscheles warned him, he practised too much for his strength; consumption showed itself, and he died at Venice on May 11, 1845.

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