master, is here in Germany learning music from Felix, and refuses to play until he has learned something better". 1835–1870: Celebrity teacher For some 35 years (1835–1870) Stamaty must have been the most sought after and the most fashionable piano teacher in Paris. He had numerous students, most of them from wealthy families in the aristocratic Faubourgs (Saint-Germain and Saint-Honoré). He charged some of the highest fees in Paris. According to Marmontel, he was a born teacher and also had the useful talent of inspiring trust not so much in his pupils but in their mothers: "Let's add that he [Stamaty] combined all the proper qualities that would inspire confidence and trust in mothers of families: distinction, reserve, correct and pure talent. He talked little and achieved a lot. Apart from Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Stamaty's most famous pupil was Camille Saint-Saëns. Saint-Saëns started with Stamaty when he was seven years old (1842) and he stayed with him until he was fourteen (1849), whence he went on to the Paris Conservatoire. Although Saint-Saëns in his later life was very critical, even dismissive of Stamaty's teaching, it is a fact that Saint-Saëns under Stamaty's tutelage developed into a first rate pianist who maintained the high level of his playing all his life, well into his eighties. Personal life and crisis (1848) Stamaty, from the age of 19 on, suffered from nervous exhaustion, overwork and frequent and severe bouts from what was then called rheumatism. Sometimes these illnesses lasted for up to half a year; during this time Stamaty was forced to give up all musical activities. When his mother died in 1846, Stamaty grieved so much that he left Paris to retreat to Rome for a full year. Stamaty married in 1848 and became the father of four children. Marmontel points out that Stamaty was the most devoted of husbands and fathers. Piano technique Stamaty's piano technique has its roots in the piano manufacturing craft of the first decades of the 19th century. Most pianos manufactured in France before 1850 had a light action and an easy touch. These pianos were ideal for the execution of rapid scales, facile arpeggios and quickly repeated notes. This resulted in an elegant and glittering bravura playing ideally suited for salons and smaller venues. Stamaty's piano technique was firmly rooted in the pre-Steinway era of pianos built with a wooden frame. Marmontel clearly states that Stamaty