25 Facts About Ignaz Moscheles

Ignaz Moscheles was based initially in London and later at Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano in the Conservatory.

Ignaz Moscheles was from an affluent German-speaking Jewish merchant family.

Ignaz Moscheles's father played the guitar and was keen for one of his children to become a musician.

Ignaz Moscheles developed an early passion for the piano music of Beethoven, which the Mozartean Bedrich Divis Weber, his teacher at the Prague Conservatory, attempted to curb, urging him to focus on Bach, Mozart and Muzio Clementi.

Ignaz Moscheles's abilities were such that he was able to study in the city under Albrechtsberger for counterpoint and theory and Salieri for composition.

Ignaz Moscheles's wife noted that he was a member of the congregation in Vienna, and that he wrote for the Vienna Jewish community an oratorio celebrating the peace.

Ignaz Moscheles remained in contact with patrons of Jewish origin such as the Eskeles family in Vienna, the Leo family in Paris, and the Rothschilds in England.

Ignaz Moscheles married Charlotte Emden, daughter of a Hamburg Jewish banker and a cousin of Heinrich Heine, in a Hamburg synagogue in 1825.

Nonetheless, after he settled in England, Ignaz Moscheles became a member of the Church of England.

Ignaz Moscheles travelled extensively in Europe as a pianist and conductor, eventually settling in London where his address was 3, Chester Place, near Regent's Park.

Ignaz Moscheles became co-director of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1832.

Ignaz 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.

Ignaz 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.

When Smart himself toured Europe in 1825 looking for new music and musicians for the Society, Ignaz Moscheles furnished Smart with a list of contacts and letters of introduction, including both Beethoven and Mendelssohn.

In 1827, Ignaz Moscheles acted as intermediary between the Philharmonic Society and the dying Beethoven.

Ignaz Moscheles helped persuade the Society to send Beethoven desperately needed funds during the composer's illness.

Ignaz Moscheles was appointed "Pianist to Prince Albert", a sinecure, which nevertheless confirmed his status.

Child prodigy pianist Elizabeth Jonas, a student of Ignaz Moscheles, played several command performances at Windsor Castle.

Ignaz Moscheles gave the first fully public performance of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata in London on 14 March 1839, three years after Liszt had performed it for an invited audience in Paris.

Ignaz Moscheles notably reintroduced the harpsichord as a solo recital instrument.

Ignaz Moscheles became a longstanding and prominent member of the Conservatory faculty, teaching piano there for several decades.

The Mendelssohn legacy in Britain meant that the Leipzig Conservatory had a high reputation amongst English musicians and amongst those who studied there during Ignaz Moscheles's time were Arthur Sullivan and Charles Villiers Stanford.

Ignaz Moscheles died in Leipzig on 10 March 1870, nine days after attending his last rehearsal with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

Ignaz Moscheles left several chamber works, and a large number of works for piano solo, including sonatas and the etudes that continued to be studied by advanced students even as Ignaz Moscheles's music fell into eclipse.

Much of what is known about Ignaz Moscheles's life is derived from the biography, with selections from his diaries and correspondence, written after his death by his wife, Charlotte, and published in Germany in 1872; an English edition appeared the following year.