In April of 2015, I was listening to my local classical music station in Houston when I heard this piano concerto I had never heard before. It had the structure of a classical era concerto and it sounded a little like a piece from the Italian composer Muzio Clementi or the Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel. But I was wrong as I learned it was from a composer I had never heard of before, Ignaz Moscheles.
While I had never heard of Moscheles, he was certainly not an insignificant man in classical music.
From Wikipedia, I found out he was a Jewish Bohemian [Czech] composer and piano virtuoso, born in Prague, with his career based early on in London and later in Vienna. Ignaz Moscheles was at one time a teacher of the brilliant Felix Mendelssohn.
I also learned that Moscheles had good relations with the giant of the early Romantic music era, Ludwig Van Beethoven: “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.” Moscheles would transcribe the piano score for Fidelio.
After the death of Mendelssohn in 1847, Ignaz Moscheles headed the Liepzig Conservatory of Music, that Mendelssohn had founded, where it is said: “The Conservatory became in effect a shrine to Mendelssohn’s musical legacy”.
From Britannica bio-Ignaz Mescheles: “Moscheles belonged to a conservative school of piano playing that did not lend itself to the works of Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt; of the younger composers of his day, he leaned more toward Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, nevertheless, his explorations of the gradations of tone colour [sic] influenced Liszt as well as Schumann. He was also admired for his brilliant extempore performances. His own compositions include eight piano concerti, studies, and chamber works”.
“Moscheles died [at the age of 75] in Leipzig on 10 March 1870, nine days after attending his last rehearsal with the Liepzig Gewandhaus Orchestra”.
Please turn up the volume and enjoy some grand [piano] music by the piano virtuoso/composer, Ignaz Moscheles:
Beethoven’s, Fidelio Overture, arranged for piano by Moscheles:
Etude [Study] for Piano in D Major:
Piano Concerto #3 in G minor:
Piano Sonate mélancolique:
Etude #14, Allegro Maestoso:
Piano Concerto #1 in F Major:
Classical Music With Big Mike 