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Ignaz Moscheles was a Bohemian composer and piano virtuoso whose

Summary: Ignaz Moscheles was a Bohemian composer and piano virtuoso whose career after his early years was based initially in London and later at Leipzig where he succeeded his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as head of the Conservatoire Moscheles was born in Prague to a well off German speaking Jewish merchant family His first name was originally Isaac His father played the guitar and was keen for one of his children to become a musician Initially his hopes fixed on Ignaz s sister but when she demurred her piano lessons were transferred to her brother Ignaz early developed a passion for the then revolutionary piano music of Beethoven which the Mozartean Bedřich Diviš Weber his teacher at the Prague Conservatory attempted to curb urging him to concentrate on Bach Mozart and Muzio Clementi After his father s early death Moscheles settled in 1808 in Vienna Nevertheless his abilities were such that he was able to study in Vienna under Albrechtsberger for counterpoint and theory and Salieri for composition At this time he changed his first name from Isaac to Ignaz He was one of the leading virtuosi resident in Vienna during the 1814 1815 Congress of Vienna and it was at this time that he wrote his enormously popular virtuosic Alexander Variations Op 32 for piano and orchestra which he later played throughout Europe Here too he became a close friend of Meyerbeer at that time still a piano virtuoso not yet a composer and their extemporized piano duets were highly acclaimed Moscheles was also familiar with Hummel and Kalkbrenner Among the virtuosi of the 1820s Hummel Kalkbrenner Cramer Herz and Weber were his most famous rivals While in Vienna Moscheles was able to meet his idol Beethoven who was so impressed with the young man s abilities that he entrusted him with the preparation of the piano score of his opera Fidelio commissioned by his publisher Artaria At the end of his manuscript before presenting it to Beethoven Moscheles wrote the words Fine mit gottes Hülfe Finished with God s help Beethoven approved Moscheles s version but appended the words O Mensch hilf dir selber O Man help thyself Moscheles s good relations with Beethoven were to prove important to both at the end of Beethoven s life Moscheles was still a practicing Jew in 1816 when he wrote for the Vienna Jewish community an oratorio celebrating the peace Throughout his life he like many other musicians of Jewish origin remained close to the circles of other musicians of Jewish origin e g Felix Mendelssohn Anton Rubinstein Joseph Joachim Ferdinand Hiller and patrons of Jewish origin the Eskeles family in Vienna the Leo family in Paris and the Rothschild banking family of England He married in the Frankfurt synagogue in 1825 Charlotte Emden daughter of a Jewish banker and a cousin of Heinrich Heine Nonetheless after he settled in England he clearly found it convenient to be technically at least a member of the Church His children were all baptised at birth and he and his wife were baptised in 1832 Moscheles travelled extensively in Europe as a pianist and conductor eventually settling in London from 1825 1846 where he became co director of the Philharmonic Society in 1832 Moscheles never disavowed his Jewish origins and frequently took his family to visit his relatives in Prague all of whom had retained their Jewish allegiances After his Viennese period there followed for Moscheles a sensational series of European concert tours it was after hearing Moscheles play at Carlsbad that the boy Robert Schumann was inspired to become a piano virtuoso himself But Moscheles found an especially warm welcome in London where in 1822 he was awarded an honorary membership of the London Academy of Music later to become the Royal Academy At the end of the year he wrote in his diary I feel more and more at home in England and he had no hesitation in settling there after his marriage Moscheles visited most of the great capitals of Europe making his first appearance in London in 1822 and there securing the friendship of Muzio Clementi and Johann Baptist Cramer Moscheles was also a student of Muzio Clementi Before that however in 1824 he had accepted an invitation to visit Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Berlin to give some lessons to his children Felix and Fanny His comments on meeting them were This is a family the like of which I have never known Felix a boy of fifteen is a phenomenon What are all prodigies compared with him He is already a mature artist His elder sister Fanny is also extraordinarily gifted A couple of weeks later he wrote This afternoon I gave Felix Mendelssohn his first lesson without losing sight for a moment of the fact that I was sitting next to a master not a pupil Thus began a relationship of extraordinary intensity which lasted throughout and beyond Mendelssohn s life he died in 1847 Moscheles was a major instrument in bringing Felix to London for the first time in 1829 Abraham entrusted Felix to his care for this visit Moscheles had carefully prepared for it In London apart from becoming a regular successful performer and a musical adviser for the soirées of the Rothschilds he had become an invaluable aid for Sir George Smart and the Royal Philharmonic Society advising them of the talents of European musicians he encountered on his own concert tours When Smart himself toured Europe in 1825 looking for new music and musicians for the Society Moscheles furnished Smart with a list of contacts and letters of introduction including both Beethoven and Mendelssohn In Prague Moscheles s brother acted as Smart s guide Smart visited the Mendelssohns in Berlin and was impressed with both Felix and Fanny This eventually led to Mendelssohn s invitation to conduct at the Society on his 1829 visit In 1827 Moscheles acted as intermediary between the Philharmonic Society and the dying Beethoven He helped persuade the Society to send Beethoven desperately needed funds during the composer s illness In return Beethoven offered to write for the Society his Tenth Symphony Ignaz Moscheles was a Bohemian composer and piano virtuoso whose career after his early years was based initially in London and later at Leipzig where he succeeded his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as head of the Conservatoire Moscheles was born in Prague to a well off German speaking Jewish merchant family His first name was originally Isaac His father played the guitar and was keen for one of his children to become a musician Initially his hopes fixed on Ignaz s sister but when she demurred her piano lessons were transferred to her brother Ignaz early developed a passion for the then revolutionary piano music of Beethoven which the Mozartean Bedřich Diviš Weber his teacher at the Prague Conservatory attempted to curb urging him to concentrate on Bach Mozart and Muzio Clementi After his father s early death Moscheles settled in 1808 in Vienna Nevertheless his abilities were such that he was able to study in Vienna under Albrechtsberger for counterpoint and theory and Salieri for composition At this time he changed his first name from Isaac to Ignaz He was one of the leading virtuosi resident in Vienna during the 1814 1815 Congress of Vienna and it was at this time that he wrote his enormously popular virtuosic Alexander Variations Op 32 for piano and orchestra which he later played throughout Europe Here too he became a close friend of Meyerbeer at that time still a piano virtuoso not yet a composer and their extemporized piano duets were highly acclaimed Moscheles was also familiar with Hummel and Kalkbrenner Among the virtuosi of the 1820s Hummel Kalkbrenner Cramer Herz and Weber were his most famous rivals While in Vienna Moscheles was able to meet his idol Beethoven who was so impressed with the young man s abilities that he entrusted him with the preparation of the piano score of his opera Fidelio commissioned by his publisher Artaria At the end of his manuscript before presenting it to Beethoven Moscheles wrote the words Fine mit gottes Hülfe Finished with God s help Beethoven approved Moscheles s version but appended the words O Mensch hilf dir selber O Man help thyself Moscheles s good relations with Beethoven were to prove important to both at the end of Beethoven s life Moscheles was still a practicing Jew in 1816 when he wrote for the Vienna Jewish community an oratorio celebrating the peace Throughout his life he like many other musicians of Jewish origin remained close to the circles of other musicians of Jewish origin e g Felix Mendelssohn Anton Rubinstein Joseph Joachim Ferdinand Hiller and patrons of Jewish origin the Eskeles family in Vienna the Leo family in Paris and the Rothschild banking family of England He married in the Frankfurt synagogue in 1825 Charlotte Emden daughter of a Jewish banker and a cousin of Heinrich Heine Nonetheless after he settled in England he clearly found it convenient to be technically at least a member of the Church His children were all baptised at birth and he and his wife were baptised in 1832 Moscheles travelled extensively in Europe as a pianist and conductor eventually settling in London from 1825 1846 where he became co director of the Philharmonic Society in 1832 Moscheles never disavowed his Jewish origins and frequently took his family to visit his relatives in Prague all of whom had retained their Jewish allegiances After his Viennese period there followed for Moscheles a sensational series of European concert tours it was after hearing Moscheles play at Carlsbad that the boy Robert Schumann was inspired to become a piano virtuoso himself But Moscheles found an especially warm welcome in London where in 1822 he was awarded an honorary membership of the London Academy of Music later to become the Royal Academy At the end of the year he wrote in his diary I feel more and more at home in England and he had no hesitation in settling there after his marriage Moscheles visited most of the great capitals of Europe making his first appearance in London in 1822 and there securing the friendship of Muzio Clementi and Johann Baptist Cramer Moscheles was also a student of Muzio Clementi Before that however in 1824 he had accepted an invitation to visit Abraham Mendelssohn Bartholdy in Berlin to give some lessons to his children Felix and Fanny His comments on meeting them were This is a family the like of which I have never known Felix a boy of fifteen is a phenomenon What are all prodigies compared with him He is already a mature artist His elder sister Fanny is also extraordinarily gifted A couple of weeks later he wrote This afternoon I gave Felix Mendelssohn his first lesson without losing sight for a moment of the fact that I was sitting next to a master not a pupil Thus began a relationship of extraordinary intensity which lasted throughout and beyond Mendelssohn s life he died in 1847 Moscheles was a major instrument in bringing Felix to London for the first time in 1829 Abraham entrusted Felix to his care for this visit Moscheles had carefully prepared for it In London apart from becoming a regular successful performer and a musical adviser for the soirées of the Rothschilds he had become an invaluable aid for Sir George Smart and the Royal Philharmonic Society advising them of the talents of European musicians he encountered on his own concert tours When Smart himself toured Europe in 1825 looking for new music and musicians for the Society Moscheles furnished Smart with a list of contacts and letters of introduction including both Beethoven and Mendelssohn In Prague Moscheles s brother acted as Smart s guide Smart visited the Mendelssohns in Berlin and was impressed with both Felix and Fanny This eventually led to Mendelssohn s invitation to conduct at the Society on his 1829 visit In 1827 Moscheles acted as intermediary between the Philharmonic Society and the dying Beethoven He helped persuade the Society to send Beethoven desperately needed funds during the composer s illness In return Beethoven offered to write for the Society his Tenth Symphony

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