Thalberg Fantasy on Don Pasquale

Sigismond Thalberg ( 1812 -- 1871) was a composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century.
Thalberg's fame had come to depend on his association with a single piano technique, the 'three-hand effect'. 'His bravura pieces, fantasies on melodies from Rossini's Mosè and La donna del lago, on motifs from Bellini's Norma and on Russian folk-songs, became extraordinarily popular through his own, brilliant execution; however, they treat their subjects always in one and the same way, [namely] [...] to let the tones of a melody be played in the medium octave of the keyboard now by the thumb of the right, now of the left hand, while the rest of the fingers are executing arpeggios filling the whole range of the keyboard'