The aim of the article is to present and discuss five hitherto unpublished autographs by Sigismund Thalberg – four letters and a small piano piece – recently acquired by the Istituto Liszt, which belong to three periods – and refer to three distinct activities: performer, piano and opera composer – in the career of Thalberg. The two oldest letters date from March 1841, and are addressed to Franz Glöggl, at that time archivist and shipping agent of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna: they show the celebrated virtuoso engaged in preparations for a concert to be given in the Austrian capital in the following April; details regarding programme, tickets and technical questions related to the piano chosen for the performance are discussed.
The piano piece is an Andante composed in Naples on March 10, 1844 and dedicated to a “Prince Lanza”, probably from the Sicilian house Lanza, whose precise identity still remains uncertain (there are at least three members of the family who, for chronological reasons, could have been the dedicatee). The piece is a very small and unpretentious one: in a span of only 16 bars, the right hand develops an extremely simple melody in the middle register, while the left unfolds a series of quiet, uniform arpeggios.
Finally, the last three letters (autumn 1853 to spring 1854) refer to the creation of Thalberg’s second and final opera, Cristina di Svezia, based on a libretto by the poet Felice Romani, the most important librettist of the first half of the 19th Century. (A survey of the reviews appearing in music periodicals of that time shows that the première of Cristina di Svezia, which took place in Vienna on June 22, 1855 at the Kärntnertortheater, was not so positive as Thalberg wrote to Romani, but ended in a total fiasco.)