A very unusual album leaf. The famous pianist, composer and pedagogue Thedor Leschetizky has penned a 2-bar quote which he marked as Danse Russe, dating it Vienna, 1897. Leschetizky (1830-1915) taught for many years in Russia, retuning to Vienna where he created one of the most eminent private piano schools in the world.

Under the Leschetizky and dated Erie, Pa, 1901, the pianist Fannie Zeisler (1863-1927) has charmingly written: To be near my dear old friend and master is, anywhere and at all times, a pleasure…Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler. The child prodigy Zeisler indeed had studied in Vienna with Leschetizky. Praised for “Playing like a man” and dubbed the “Sarah Bernhardt of the piano", Austrian-born American Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler exploded notions about women pianists.

The verso shows a 6-bar quote marked as "2eme Scherzo", signed Chevalier de Kontski who further identifies himself as Court Pianist to the Emperor of Germany. The Polish pianist and composer Anton Kontski (1816-1899) was a child prodigy, who studied with John Field in Moscow and Sigismond Thalberg in Vienna. Touring and living in many countries, he eventually settled in the U.S. He was also something of a showman: he advertised himself as the only living pupil of Beethoven and used to play at least one piece in each concert with his hands under a folded blanket placed on the keyboard.