Ignaz Moscheles, born in Bohemia, spent the first part of his career in England, was one of Mendelssohn's teachers there, and named his son after his fellow Jewish composer. He was an early example of the composer-virtuoso, making his living mostly as a touring pianist and piano teacher to the rich and famous. Musically he was an upholder of the pure Beethovenian tradition, which Mendelssohn and other composers confronted, and he was gradually forgotten as the nineteenth century and its ideologies of progress rolled on. ...
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Ignaz Moscheles, born in Bohemia, spent the first part of his career in England, was one of Mendelssohn's teachers there, and named his son after his fellow Jewish composer. He was an early example of the composer-virtuoso, making his living mostly as a touring pianist and piano teacher to the rich and famous. Musically he was an upholder of the pure Beethovenian tradition, which Mendelssohn and other composers confronted, and he was gradually forgotten as the nineteenth century and its ideologies of progress rolled on. Three of his works are revived here by a Chinese pianist, a Sudanese-born Greek conductor, and a regional orchestra that attests anew to the depth of talent in mainstream repertory in Germany. All, especially the Overture to Schiller's "Die Jungfrau von Orléans, Op. 91, bear the hallmarks of middle-period Beethoven, including close motivic relationships among the various themes heard in the course of a work. The most successful of the three works is the one for Moscheles' instrument;...
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