Ignaz Moscheles
Rondo brillant for Horn and Orchestra
– First Edition –
Ignaz Moscheles was born in Prague in 1794 and received his first musical training in his native city, studying with Friedrich Dionys Weber, among others. In 1808 he moved to Vienna, where he remained until 1820 (apart from occasional concert tours) and continued his theoretical studies with Albrechtsberger and Salieri. He soon became one of the most popular pianists and teachers in the city. Among his encounters with figures such as Clementi and Spohr, the most significant was his meeting with Beethoven, under whose guidance he prepared the first piano reduction of Fidelio in 1814.
From 1820 he undertook extended concert tours. In 1824 he met the young Felix Mendelssohn in Berlin and became his teacher. He later settled in London, where he was Professor at the Royal Academy of Music and conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Society from 1832 to 1841.
In 1846 he followed Mendelssohn’s wish and took over the overall direction of piano studies, performance training and piano composition at the Leipzig Conservatory. Moscheles died in Leipzig in 1870, where a street still bears his name today.
Unfortunately, Moscheles’ compositions are rarely heard in concert today. The present Rondo brillant for horn was written in 1816, during his Vienna years. As early as 1815 he had performed Beethoven’s Sonata for Horn and Piano, Op. 17, with the hornist Hradetzky at a chamber music concert – perhaps this was the inspiration for the Rondo brillant presented here.
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Rondo brillant for Horn and Orchestra