A Question of Virtuosity: Michel Dalberto’s Virtus
by Maureen Buja Pianist Michel Dalberto ’s latest album, Virtus , poses the question of the meaning of the word ‘virtuosity’. The word seems to have changed its meaning between the end of classicism and the height of romanticism. In the 1860s and 1870s, the Dictionnaire Littré ( Dictionnaire de la langue française ) defined virtuosos as skilled individuals in any field whatsoever, and it goes on to indicate that virtus , from strong man, now meant a man of talent. So, the man of virtue was gradually changed to the man of skill. And so we have today’s virtuosos. Michel Dalberto In his new album, Dalberto shows us the differing possibilities of virtuosity through the 19 th century. He opens with what has become the basic definition of virtuoso: Franz Liszt ’s concert paraphrase of a waltz from Gounod’s Faust (S. 407). Starting with the basic theme, Liszt then adds the emphasis and techniques that only he is capab...
