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MOSCHELES, IGNAZ (1794–1870)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 890 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MOSCHELES, IGNAZ (1794–1870) , Bohemian pianist, was See also:born at See also:Prague on the 3oth of May 1794, and studied See also:music at the Conservatorium under the direction of Dionys See also:Weber. At the See also:age of fourteen he made his first See also:appearance before the public in a See also:pianoforte See also:concerto of his own See also:composition with marked success. In 1814 he prepared, with See also:Beethoven's See also:con-sent, the pianoforte arrangement of Fidelio, afterwards published by Messrs Artaria. In the following See also:year he published his celebrated Variationen caber den Alexandermarsch, a See also:concert piece of See also:great difficulty, which he played with so great effect that he was at once recognized as the most brilliant performer of the See also:day. He then started on a tour, during the course of which he visited most of the great capitals of See also:Europe, making his first appearance in See also:London in 1822, and there securing the friendship of Muzio See also:Clementi and See also:John See also:Cramer. For a concert given by the latter he wrote his famous Hommage d See also:Handel, a See also:duet for two pianofortes, which afterwards became a lasting favourite with the public. During a visit to See also:Berlin in 1824 he first became acquainted with Mendelssohn, then a boy of fifteen; and a friendship sprang up between them which was severed only by Mendelssohn's See also:early See also:death (see Briefe von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy an Ignaz and See also:Charlotte Moscheles, 1888). In 1826 Moscheles married Charlotte Embden at See also:Hamburg, and settled permanently in London. He was undoubtedly for some considerable See also:time the greatest executant of his age; but, using his brilliant See also:touch as a means and not as an end, he consistently devoted himself to the further development of the true classical school, interpreting the See also:works of the great masters with conscientious fidelity, and in his extempore performances, which were of quite exceptional excellence, exhibiting a fertility of invention which never failed to please the most fastidious See also:taste. In 1837 Moscheles conducted Beethoven's Ninth See also:Symphony at ' the° Philharmonic Society's concerts with extraordinary success, and by his skilful use of the See also:baton contributed to the prosperity of this association. During the course of his See also:long See also:residence in London he laboured incessantly in the cause of See also:art, until the year 1846, when, at Mendelssohn's See also:earnest solicitation, he removed to See also:Leipzig to carry on a similar See also:work at the Conservatorium, then recently founded. In this new See also:sphere he worked with unabated zeal for many years, dying on the loth of See also:March 187o.

Moscheles' numbered works extend to 142, apart from See also:

minor pieces; his most important compositions are his Pianoforte Concertos, Sonatas and Studies (Etudes, op. 70; and Characteristische Studien, op. 95); Hommage d Handel; and his three See also:Allegri di bravura. See The See also:Life of Moscheles (1873), a See also:translation by A. D. See also:Coleridge of Mme Moscheles' Aus Moscheles Leben (1872).

End of Article: MOSCHELES, IGNAZ (1794–1870)

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