Moscheles, Ignaz (1794 - 1870)

Ignaz Moscheles (1794 - 1870)
Pianist, composer  and piano pedagogue
Steel engraving by Carl Mayer, around 1840
StadtMuseum Bonn

Moscheles was born in Prague and studied at the Prague Conservatory, respectively later in Vienna with Albrechtsberger and Salieri. Schumann heard him for the first time as an eight year old child in a concert in Carlsbad, where he spent the summer of 1818. Even years later, Schumann remembered this concert with awe. Later, after rehearsals in Leipzig in the fall of 1840 with Mendelssohn, Schumann stated an age-related decrease in both the creative and pianistic skills of Moscheles. Moscheles was one of the great piano virtuosos of his time and was also a renowned music pedagogue. In 1846 he took over the piano class at the Leipzig Conservatory, which was founded in 1843 by his friend Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. At this point, Robert Schumann and his family already left Leipzig and lived in Dresden. Robert Schumann dedicated his concerto without orchestra / Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor op. 14 to Ignaz Moscheles (1836). (I.B.)