Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 From Prague and Vienna to England, 1794–1825
- Chapter 2 A Home in England, 1825–1846
- Chapter 3 Leipzig, 1846–1870
- Chapter 4 The Pianist, The Pedagogue and his Pianos
- Chapter 5 Encounters with Beethoven and his Music
- Chapter 6 A Friendship Like No Other: Mendelssohn and Moscheles
- Chapter 7 Le Concert C’est Moscheles: Historical Soirées and the Invention of the Solo Piano Recital
- Chapter 8 The Jewish Musician
- Epilogue Reminiscences of Moscheles’ Family by his Great-Great-Grandson Henry Roche
- List of Works
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 5 - Encounters with Beethoven and his Music
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 From Prague and Vienna to England, 1794–1825
- Chapter 2 A Home in England, 1825–1846
- Chapter 3 Leipzig, 1846–1870
- Chapter 4 The Pianist, The Pedagogue and his Pianos
- Chapter 5 Encounters with Beethoven and his Music
- Chapter 6 A Friendship Like No Other: Mendelssohn and Moscheles
- Chapter 7 Le Concert C’est Moscheles: Historical Soirées and the Invention of the Solo Piano Recital
- Chapter 8 The Jewish Musician
- Epilogue Reminiscences of Moscheles’ Family by his Great-Great-Grandson Henry Roche
- List of Works
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The figure of Beethoven loomed large throughout Moscheles’ life. He revered the composer and his music from the time he was a boy until his final days at the age of seventy-five, long after Beethoven himself had died. Moscheles expressed his feelings in no uncertain terms in 1837, as he was planning his first series of historical concerts: “Beethoven is great—whom should I call greater?” We have discussed Moscheles’ previous encounters with Beethoven, especially with regard to the 1823 concerts in Vienna. This chapter continues that discussion by examining the Beethoven-Moscheles relationship in detail. We begin by returning to Moscheles’ first personal contact with the composer and his music as a young professional in Vienna—especially the piano arrangement of Fidelio—and also describe his appearances under Beethoven’s baton as a percussion player in the now-famous performances of Wellington’s Victory, op. 91 (Wellingtons Sieg; oder die Schacht bei Vittoria) in 1813. A survey of the important personal role Moscheles played during the period before and after Beethoven’s death in 1827, and of the works of Beethoven he performed throughout his life, including the establishment of the Ninth Symphony as a central work in the orchestral repertoire of England, occupies a central place in this chapter. We also relate Moscheles’ unhappy experiences at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn of 1845, and analyze Moscheles’ editions of Beethoven’s music and his translation of Schindler’s biography of the composer.
THE ARRANGEMENT OF FIDELIO
That first chance meeting at Artaria’s shop in 1810 had to be the high point of Moscheles’ early years in Vienna, as he described almost half a century later in the preface to his Life of Beethoven:
I happened to be one morning in the music shop of Domenico Artaria, who had just been publishing some of my early attempts at composition, when a man entered with short and hasty steps, and gliding through the circle of ladies and professors assembled on business or talking over musical matters, without looking up, as though he wished to pass unnoticed, made his way direct for Artaria’s private office at the bottom of the shop. Presently Artaria called me in, and said, ‘This is Beethoven!’ and, to the composer, ‘This is the youth of whom I have just been speaking to you.
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- Information
- Ignaz Moscheles and the Changing World of Musical Europe , pp. 200 - 242Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2014