Ignaz Moscheles: A Pioneer of 19th-Century Piano

The 19th century saw a countless number of piano virtuosos born in Bohemia who were active in Western Europe. These include Dussek, I. Tedesco, Dreyschock, Julius Schulhoff and many others. However, their names often await proper evaluation, not being positioned within the mainstream of performers' repertoires or the history of piano music. Moscheles was likely the first figure of the generation following Dussek to exert significant influence in the three countries of Germany, France, and England.

Early Life and Vienna

Ignaz Moscheles was born in Prague on May 23, 1794. Born into a Jewish family of wholesale merchants, his father provided him with a musical education from an early age. After receiving initial instruction from local musicians, from 1804 he was thoroughly immersed in the works of J. S. Bach, Mozart, and Clementi under Bedřich Diviš Weber (1766–1842), director of the Prague Conservatory. Thanks to his innate excellent memory and diligent practice, he made rapid progress, and at the tender age of 12, he held a public concert in his hometown, receiving great acclaim. Driven by a further desire for exploration, Moscheles moved to Vienna in 1808. There, he sought instruction from two composers, Salieri and Albrechtsberger, whom every aspiring young musician wished to study with. He devoted equal passion to both composition and performance, immersing himself in various works, both ancient and contemporary, including those of Beethoven, for whom he held a strong interest. During this period, at the request of Artaria, he undertook the reduction of Beethoven's opera Fidelio under the composer's supervision. Published in 1815, Variations on a March of Alexander I (Op. 32) achieved a success worthy of being called his 'breakthrough work' (15 years later, the young Schumann performed this work in a public concert). The popularity of this work in the German-speaking world under the Vienna System was due to the fall of Paris in 1814 by the Sixth Coalition against France.

European Tours and Romantic Inclinations

As Napoleon's dominance waned, Moscheles left Vienna and embarked on concert tours throughout Germany, receiving acclaim in Dresden, Leipzig, Cologne, Munich, and also in the Netherlands and Belgium. Amidst his brilliant activities, works such as the Sonata Caractéristique Op. 27 (composed 1814), Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 45 (composed 1819), and the single-movement, symphonic Sonata Mélancolique Op. 49 (composed 1814–19, dedicated to his friend, pianist and composer Johann Peter Pixis) demonstrate the solid compositional skill he had cultivated by this time and his inclination towards Romanticism. The 'melancholy' in the title of the last-mentioned work, Op. 49, takes as its theme the aimless passion that the French royalist writer Chateaubriand called the 'malady of the century,' and it became a topos of Romanticism in music as well. While its reflection is strong in Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique (premiered 1830), Moscheles' sonata predates it, and its single-movement, concise form also precedes Liszt's sonatas.

Paris and Pedagogical Influence

In 1820, Moscheles appeared at the Paris Opéra. He caused a sensation with a series of concerts. Moscheles' extraordinary performing skill, rich ideas, and perfectly structured works, without excess or deficiency, reportedly gave fault-finding critics no grounds for complaint. Marmontel, a professor at the Paris Conservatoire who knew Moscheles personally, later recalled of his works: "No master, with the exception of Hummel, ever wrote pieces with such brilliance, such novel progression, and such profound knowledge of effect." Soon, enthusiastic admirers of Moscheles, including Henri Herz, appeared one after another in Paris. Subsequently, Moscheles' works were frequently chosen as examination pieces at the Paris Conservatoire, and Moscheles himself later published and dedicated his pedagogical 50 Preludes in all the Major and Minor Keys Op. 73 (1827) to the Conservatoire. The 24 Studies in all the Major and Minor Keys Op. 70, published the following year, had a significant impact on the younger generation of pianists and composers, alongside J. C. Kessler's Études and H. Bertini's Études caractéristiques Op. 66, both published in Paris in the same year. Schumann adopted the format of the preface on performance attached to these studies for his own Studies on Paganini's Caprices Op. 3, and Chopin, when writing his Étude No. 2 in A minor from 12 Études Op. 10, found possibilities for the development of performing technique in the writing of No. 3 in G major. Alongside his composition and performance, he also collaborated with Érard on the development of the piano's double escapement mechanism at their request.

London and Collaborations

In 1821, he bid farewell to Paris, where he had been enthusiastically welcomed, and moved to England. In this country, which was tolerant of masters from the continent, he would continue to live for 25 years until 1846. Settling in London, Moscheles became acquainted with local masters and senior piano virtuosos, Muzio Clementi and Johann Baptist Cramer. Naturally amiable and a gentleman who made no enemies, Moscheles immediately gained popularity among the aristocracy and the general public, and began to attract many pupils. Among them were the young London-born virtuoso Henry Litolff (1818–1891) and Sigismond Thalberg, who had moved to London from Germany. In 1824, he met the 15-year-old Felix Mendelssohn in Berlin, gave him lessons, and thereafter warmly welcomed his pupil whenever he came to London, performing with him in concerts. In 1839, he performed his own Sonata for Piano Four Hands, Op. 47 with Chopin before royalty in Paris. This piece was also one of Chopin's favorites. Even after settling in England, he continued to undertake concert tours to Ireland, Scotland, and various cities on the continent, but after marrying in 1825 and also becoming Professor of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music and conductor of the Philharmonic Society, he spent less time away from London.

Historical Concerts and Improvisation

During his time in England, he was also assiduous in his exploration of music from before the 18th century. At musical evenings titled 'Historical Concerts,' he presented Baroque keyboard works by Bach, Handel, and Scarlatti using the harpsichord, which was already considered an artifact of the past at the time, as well as vocal works by Purcell and Mozart, and sonatas by Beethoven and C. M. von Weber, in which he was a specialist. As a pianist, Moscheles was also an outstanding improviser; according to Fétis, when he heard Moscheles perform in Brussels, Moscheles took on three given themes simultaneously, improvised on each theme consecutively, then introduced the themes alternately in the right and left hands, combining one theme with another, and concluded the improvisation "without a single moment of hesitation, and without ever stopping the progress of interest." Some people thought that the framework of his improvised fantasies was pre-written, and he himself wrote of Moscheles' improvisation in 1835 that he "could scarcely believe what I had just heard." Fétis compared this structural quality in improvisation to "the order that a talented orator builds in a speech," using the traditional analogy between rhetoric and performance.

Conductor and Editor

The existence of the London Philharmonic Society, where he served as conductor, provided Moscheles with ample opportunities for composition beyond piano works. He was able to write the Symphony in C major Op. 81 (1828–1829) for this orchestra, and his Septet for Strings, Winds, and Piano Op. 88 was also performed by this society. As a conductor, he successfully staged Beethoven's Missa Solemnis and Symphony No. 9, greatly contributing to the reception of Beethoven in England. It should also be added that Moscheles' English translation (1841) of Anton Schindler's Biography of Beethoven (whose reliability is highly doubted today) played a role in establishing Beethoven's image among general readers.

Leipzig and Lasting Legacy

In 1846, Moscheles left his familiar London home and was invited by Mendelssohn to become Professor of Piano at the Leipzig Conservatory (Mendelssohn had dedicated his Fantasia Op. 28 to Moscheles 12 years earlier). His skill as a piano educator was already widely known through his teaching positions in England and his co-edited and published work with the Belgian composer and musicologist Fétis, Méthode des méthodes (1841). With Moscheles' arrival, the students at this school quickly formed a renowned school of thought. His pupils in Leipzig included Edvard Grieg, Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), and his compatriot Zdeněk Fibich (1850–1900). Moscheles remained in this city with his family until his death at the age of 75. The educational foundation he laid was subsequently passed on to Carl Reinecke, and the Leipzig Conservatory became a leading educational institution in Europe, its name reaching as far as Meiji-era Japan.

Contributions to Music Editing and Pedagogy

Moscheles undertook numerous score editions and arrangements as an evangelist for German music from before the 18th century. Looking solely at Beethoven, his contributions include editions of piano sonatas, chamber music, overtures, the vocal score of the opera Fidelio, piano arrangements of symphonies, solo versions of piano concertos, and cadenzas for piano concertos. Furthermore, he also edited keyboard works by Handel, Haydn, Clementi, and Weber, widely disseminating the results of his historical research. It is worth recalling his educational contributions, as his lifelong consistent exploration of 'classics' served as a catalyst for establishing the foundation of the repertoire for modern piano education that followed.