Moritz Moszkowski (23 August 18544 March 1925) was a
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
,
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
, and teacher of
Polish-Jewish
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...
descent.
[Encyclopædia Britannica](_blank)
states that he was "German" born while other sources call him Jewish, for instance, Lewis Stevens in ''Composers of classical music of Jewish descent.'' His brother
Alexander Moszkowski
Alexander Moszkowski (15 January 1851 – 26 September 1934) was a German satirist, writer and philosopher of Polish-Jewish descent. He was the brother of the composer and pianist Moritz Moszkowski.
He was a friend of many celebrities in Berlin ...
was a famous writer and satirist in Berlin.
Ignacy Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer who became a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the new nation's Prime Minister and foreign minister during which he signed the Treaty of Versaill ...
said: "After
Chopin, Moszkowski best understands how to write for the piano, and his writing embraces the whole gamut of piano technique." Although less known today, Moszkowski was well respected and popular during the late nineteenth century.
Life and career
He was born in
Breslau,
Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...
(now Wrocław,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
), into a wealthy Polish-Jewish family whose parents had come to Breslau from
Pilica, near
Zawiercie
Zawiercie is a city in the south of Poland located in the Silesian Voivodeship with 49,334 inhabitants (2019). It is situated in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland near the source of the Warta River. The town lies near the historical region of Sile ...
, in 1854. He was an ardent Jew at a time when many Jews downplayed their Jewishness.
[Faubion Bowers, Liner notes from ]Ilana Vered Ilana Vered ( he, אילנה ורד; born December 6, 1943 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is a concert pianist and professor of piano.
Biography
From age 13 to 15 Vered attended the Paris Conservatoire, which awarded her first prize in piano upon her graduat ...
's recording of the 15 Virtuoso Études, Op. 72 He showed early talent from a very tender age, beginning his musical training at home until 1865, when his family moved to
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
. There he continued his piano studies at the conservatory. He moved to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
in 1869 to continue his studies first at the
Julius Stern
Julius Stern (8 August 1820 – 27 February 1883) was a Jewish German musical pedagogue and composer.
Biography
Stern was born at Breslau. He received his elementary education in music from the violinist Peter Lüstner, and at the age of nine p ...
Conservatory, where he studied piano with
Eduard Franck
Eduard Franck (5 October 1817 – 1 December 1893) was a German composer, pianist and music pedagogue.
Life
Franck was born in Breslau, the capital of the Prussian province of Silesia. He was the fourth child of a wealthy banker who exposed h ...
and composition with
Friedrich Kiel
Friedrich Kiel (8 October 182113 September 1885) was a German composer and music teacher.
Writing of the chamber music of Friedrich Kiel, the scholar and critic Wilhelm Altmann notes that it was Kiel’s extreme modesty which kept him and his e ...
, and then at
Theodor Kullak
Theodor is a masculine given name. It is a German form of Theodore. It is also a variant of Teodor.
List of people with the given name Theodor
* Theodor Adorno, (1903–1969), German philosopher
* Theodor Aman, Romanian painter
* Theodor Blueger, ...
's ''Neue Akademie der Tonkunst,'' where he studied composition with
Richard Wüerst
Richard Wüerst (22 February 1824 – 9 October 1881) was a German composer, music professor and pedagogue.
Wüerst was born and died in Berlin. He was a pupil of Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen at the Prussian Academy of Arts and a pupil of Felix Men ...
and orchestration with
Heinrich Dorn
Heinrich Ludwig Egmont Dorn (14 November 1800 or 1804-10 January 1892) was a German conductor, composer, teacher, and journalist. He was born in Königsberg, where he studied piano, singing, and composition. Later, he studied in Berlin with Ludw ...
. There he became close friends with the Scharwenka brothers,
Xaver and
Philipp
Philipp is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include:
"Philipp" has also been a shortened version of Philippson, a German surname especially prevalent amongst German Jews and Dutch Jews.
Surname
* Adolf Philipp (1864 ...
. In 1871 he accepted Kullak's offer to become a teacher in his academy; as he was also a more than competent violinist, he sometimes played first violin in the orchestra.
In 1873, Moszkowski made his first successful appearance as a pianist, and soon began touring the nearby cities in order to gain experience and establish his reputation. Two years later he was already playing his piano concerto on two pianos with
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
at a matinée before a selected audience invited by Liszt himself.
[This composition was the Piano Concerto in B minor Op. 3, which only received its orchestral premiere in January of 2014. The E major Concerto Op. 59, a work composed and dedicated to ]Josef Hofmann
Josef Casimir Hofmann (originally Józef Kazimierz Hofmann; January 20, 1876February 16, 1957) was a Polish-American pianist, composer, music teacher, and inventor.
Biography
Josef Hofmann was born in Podgórze (a district of Kraków), in Aus ...
, was published in 1899. It was about this time that Moszkowski's works were first published, such as the first set of ''Spanish Dances'' Op. 12, originally written for piano duet and later orchestrated by Philipp Scharwenka
Ludwig Philipp Scharwenka (16 February 1847, in Szamotuły amter Grand Duchy of Posen – 16 July 1917, in Bad Nauheim) was a German-Polish composer and teacher of music. He was the older brother of Xaver Scharwenka.
Early training
Scharwenka w ...
, who arranged the violin parts, and Valentin Frank (1858–1929).
Retaining his post as a teacher at the
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
conservatory from 1875,
[Moszkowski retained his post as a teacher at the conservatory for twenty five years.] he had among his pupils
Frank Damrosch
Frank Heino Damrosch (June 22, 1859 – October 22, 1937) was a German-born American music conductor and educator. In 1905, Damrosch founded the New York Institute of Musical Art, a predecessor of the Juilliard School.
Life and career
Damrosch w ...
,
Joaquín Nin
Joaquín Nin y Castellanos (29 September 1879, Havana – 24 October 1949, Havana) was a Cuban pianist and composer. Nin was the father of Anaïs Nin.
Biography
He was son of the Catalan writer Joaquin Nin Tudó and Àngela Castellanos Perdom ...
,
Ernest Schelling
Ernest Henry Schelling (July 26, 1876 – December 8, 1939) was an American pianist, composer, and conductor, and music director. He was the conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 1935 to 1937.
Biography
He was born in Belvidere, ...
,
Joaquín Turina
Joaquín Turina Pérez (9 December 188214 January 1949) was a Spanish composer of classical music.''Encyclopædia Britannica'' online (2014)"Joaquín Turina"/ref>
Biography
Turina was born in Seville. He studied in Seville as well as in Mad ...
,
Carl Lachmund
Carl V. Lachmund (27 March 185320 February 1928) was an American classical pianist, teacher, conductor, composer, and diarist. He was a student of Franz Liszt for three years, and his detailed diaries of his time with Liszt provide an invaluable i ...
,
Bernhard Pollack
Bernhard Pollack (14 August 1865 – 3 March 1928 in Berlin) was a German neuroanatomist and ophthalmologist practicing in Berlin. He held the post of Professor of Ophthalmology at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin. In addition to medical ...
, Ernst Jonas, Wilhelm Sachs, Helene von Schack, Albert Ulrich and Johanna Wenzel. Moszkowski then travelled successfully throughout Europe with the reputation of being an exceptional concert pianist and brilliant composer, having also gained some recognition as a conductor. In 1884, Moszkowski married the younger sister of pianist and composer
Cécile Chaminade
Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade (8 August 1857 – 13 April 1944) was a French composer and pianist. In 1913, she was awarded the Légion d'Honneur, a first for a female composer. Ambroise Thomas said, "This is not a woman who composes, but a ...
, Henriette Chaminade, with whom he had a son named Marcel and a daughter named Sylvia.
[Lazaros C. Triarhou]
Moritz Moszkowski
'' Vol. 67 No. 6 (2012), European Neurology. Accessdate: 10 June 2012 By the mid-1880s, Moszkowski began suffering from a neurological problem in his arm and gradually diminished his recital activity in favor of composing, teaching and conducting.
In 1887, he was invited to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
where he had the chance to introduce many of his orchestral pieces. There he was awarded honorary membership of the
Royal Philharmonic Society
The Royal Philharmonic Society (RPS) is a British music society, formed in 1813. Its original purpose was to promote performances of instrumental music in London. Many composers and performers have taken part in its concerts. It is now a memb ...
. Three years later his wife left him for the poet
Ludwig Fulda
Ludwig Anton Salomon Fulda (July 7, 1862 – March 7, 1939) was a German playwright and poet, with a strong social commitment. He lived with Moritz Moszkowski's first wife Henriette, née Chaminade, younger sister of pianist and composer Cécile ...
and a divorce was issued two years later.
In 1897, famous and wealthy, Moszkowski moved to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
[S. Pratt, Waldo]
The History of Music: A Handbook And Guide for Students
'' pg. 680, Kessinger Publishing (2004); where he lived on rue Blanche with his daughter.
[In 1906, he lost his 17-year-old daughter Sylvia while his son was engaged in the French army.] In Paris, he was frequently sought after as a teacher, and was always generous in investing his time on aspiring musicians. Among his Parisian students were
Vlado Perlemuter
Vladislas "Vlado" Perlemuter (26 May 1904 – 4 September 2002) was a Lithuanian-born French pianist and teacher.
Biography
Vladislas (Vlado) Perlemuter was born to a Polish Jewish family, the third of four sons, in Kovno, Russia (now Kaunas in Li ...
,
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, Order of the Companions of Honour, CH (29 April 18798 March 1961) was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Philharmonic and the Roya ...
(who took private lessons in orchestration with him on the advice of
André Messager
André Charles Prosper Messager (; 30 December 1853 – 24 February 1929) was a French composer, organist, pianist and conductor. His compositions include eight ballets and thirty opéra comique, opéras comiques, opérettes and other stage wo ...
in 1904),
Josef Hofmann
Josef Casimir Hofmann (originally Józef Kazimierz Hofmann; January 20, 1876February 16, 1957) was a Polish-American pianist, composer, music teacher, and inventor.
Biography
Josef Hofmann was born in Podgórze (a district of Kraków), in Aus ...
(of whom he claimed once that there was nothing anyone could teach him),
Wanda Landowska
Wanda Aleksandra Landowska (5 July 1879 – 16 August 1959) was a Polish harpsichordist and pianist whose performances, teaching, writings and especially her many recordings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in ...
, and, informally,
Gaby Casadesus
Gaby Casadesus (August 9, 1901 – November 12, 1999) was a French classical pianist and teacher born in Marseilles, France. She was married to the French pianist Robert Casadesus and their son Jean was also a notable pianist.
Biography
Born ...
. In the summer he rented a villa near
Montigny-sur-Loing
Montigny-sur-Loing (, literally ''Montigny on Loing'') is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Montigny-sur-Loing station has rail connections to Montargis, Melun and Paris. Inhabitants ...
owned by the French novelist and poet
Henri Murger
Louis-Henri Murger, also known as Henri Murger and Henry Murger (27 March 1822 – 28 January 1861), was a French novelist and poet.
He is chiefly distinguished as the author of the 1851 book ''Scènes de la vie de bohème'' (Scenes of Bohemi ...
.
[
In 1899, the Berlin Academy elected him a member. He was many times invited by piano manufacturers to appear in the ]United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
to show off their pianos, but despite being offered massive fees, he always refused.[
In 1908, by the age of 54, Moszkowski had already become a recluse as he began to suffer from poor health. His popularity began to fade and his career slowly went into decline. He stopped taking composition pupils because "they wanted to write like artistic madmen such as ]Scriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (; russian: Александр Николаевич Скрябин ; – ) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. Before 1903, Scriabin was greatly influenced by the music of Frédéric Chopin and composed ...
, Schoenberg, Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
, Satie
Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, Paris Conse ...
...".
His last years he spent in poverty for he had sold all his copyrights and invested the whole lot in German, Polish and Russian bonds and securities, which were rendered worthless on the outbreak of the war. Two of his former pupils, Josef Hofmann and Bernhard Pollack came to his aid. Through the intervention of Pollack, who sent new piano arrangements of Moszkowski's opera ''Boabdil'' to Peters Publishing House in Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
, he collected an extra 10,000 francs
The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...
camouflaged as royalties besides a gift of 10,000 marks
Marks may refer to:
Business
* Mark's, a Canadian retail chain
* Marks & Spencer, a British retail chain
* Collective trade marks, trademarks owned by an organisation for the benefit of its members
* Marks & Co, the inspiration for the novel ...
and personal donations of 10,000 marks from Hofmann and 5,000 marks from himself. On 21 December 1921, when he was ill and heavily in debt, his friends and admirers arranged a grand testimonial concert on his behalf at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
, involving 15 grand pianos on stage. Ossip Gabrilowitsch
Ossip Salomonovich Gabrilowitsch (Осип Сoломонович Габрилович, ''Osip Solomonovich Gabrilovich''; he used the German transliteration ''Gabrilowitsch'' in the West) (14 September 1936) was a Russian-born American pianist, ...
, Percy Grainger
Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...
, Josef Lhévinne
Josef Lhévinne (13 December 18742 December 1944) was a Russian pianist and piano teacher. Lhévinne wrote a short book in 1924 that is considered a classic: ''Basic Principles in Pianoforte Playing''. Asked how to say his name, he told ''The Li ...
, Elly Ney
Elly Ney (27 September 1882 – 31 March 1968) was a German romantic pianist who specialized in Beethoven, and was especially popular in Germany.
Career
She was born in Düsseldorf, where her mother was a music instructor and her father was a r ...
, Wilhelm Backhaus
Wilhelm Backhaus ('Bachaus' on some record labels) (26 March 1884 – 5 July 1969) was a German pianist and pedagogue. He was particularly well known for his interpretations of Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin and Brahms. He was also much ...
and Harold Bauer
Harold Victor Bauer (28 April 1873 – 12 March 1951) was a noted pianist of Jewish heritage who began his musical career as a violinist.
Biography
Harold Bauer was born in Kingston upon Thames; his father was a German violinist and his mot ...
were among the performers, and Frank Damrosch
Frank Heino Damrosch (June 22, 1859 – October 22, 1937) was a German-born American music conductor and educator. In 1905, Damrosch founded the New York Institute of Musical Art, a predecessor of the Juilliard School.
Life and career
Damrosch w ...
conducted (Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer who became a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the new nation's Prime Minister and foreign minister during which he signed the Treaty of Versail ...
telegrammed his apologies).[Moszkowski was certainly influential in having Paderewski publish his early piano pieces.] The concert netted US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
13,275 (the equivalent of US$187,793.67 in May 2017), with one part transferred to the Paris branch of the National City Bank of New York
Citibank, N. A. (N. A. stands for " National Association") is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of financial services multinational Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, and later became First National City ...
in order to provide immediate relief from his financial problems, and an annuity purchased at the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...
, whereby he would receive US$1,250 annually for the rest of his life.[The sum was equivalent to 15,000 francs, with the first monthly payment arranged for 1 March 1925.]
However, Moszkowski's illness lingered and he died from stomach cancer on 4 March of the next year, before the supply of funds could reach him. The money raised went instead to pay his funeral expenses and to his wife and son.
Works
Despite the balance and bright limpidity of his playing and his wonderful technique, which aroused the enthusiasm of admirers throughout Europe, his music has also been described as "devoid of the masculine and the feminine".[ He was a master in his pianistic repertoire, but it was in his own compositions that he was more admired.][His early works show the influence of ]Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...
, Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...
, and in particular Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
, a composer who later would mould Moszkowski's own style, which clearly shows Schumann's subtle sense of the instrument and its capabilities. His music rapidly became a sensation, but he also had legitimate success in major works for the stage and the concert hall.
Moszkowski was quite prolific, composing over two hundred small-scale piano pieces, which brought him much popularity – notably his set of ''Spanish Dances'' Op. 12, for piano duet (later arranged for solo piano, and for orchestra by Phillip Scharwenka).[The ''Spanish Dance No. 5 (Bolero)'' is played by a salon trio in a scene from the ]David Lean
Sir David Lean (25 March 190816 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Widely considered one of the most important figures in British cinema, Lean directed the large-scale epics ''The Bridge on the River ...
film ''Brief Encounter
''Brief Encounter'' is a 1945 British romantic drama film directed by David Lean from a screenplay by Noël Coward, based on his 1936 one-act play ''Still Life''.
Starring Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, and Joyce Carey, ...
.''
His early ''Serenade'', Op. 15, was world-famous and appeared in many guises, including the song ''Liebe, kleine Nachtigall''. Today he is probably best known for his fifteen ''Études de Virtuosité'', Op. 72, which have been performed by virtuoso pianists such as Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz; yi, וולאַדימיר סאַמוילאָוויטש האָראָוויץ, group=n (November 5, 1989)Schonberg, 1992 was a Russian-born American classical pianist. Considered one of the greatest pianists of all ...
and Marc-André Hamelin
Marc-André Hamelin, OC, CQ (born September 5, 1961), is a Canadian virtuoso pianist and composer. Hamelin is recognized worldwide for the originality and technical proficiency of his performances of the classic repertoire. He has received 11 Gr ...
. Ilana Vered Ilana Vered ( he, אילנה ורד; born December 6, 1943 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is a concert pianist and professor of piano.
Biography
From age 13 to 15 Vered attended the Paris Conservatoire, which awarded her first prize in piano upon her graduat ...
made the first complete recording in 1970. Many of his small but brilliant piano pieces, such as '' Étincelles'' (''Sparks''), are used as encore performances at the end of classical concerts.
He also wrote larger scale works including two piano concertos (one in B minor, Op. 3, in 1874, only rediscovered in 2011 and published in 2013, and the much better known Concerto in E major, Op. 59, from 1898), a Violin Concerto
A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...
in C major, Op. 30, three orchestral suites (Opp. 39, 47, 79), and a symphonic poem ''Jeanne d'Arc
Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...
'', Op. 19. His opera ''Boabdil
Abu Abdallah Muhammad XII ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد الثاني عشر, Abū ʿAbdi-llāh Muḥammad ath-thānī ʿashar) (c. 1460–1533), known in Europe as Boabdil (a Spanish rendering of the name ''Abu Abdallah''), was the ...
der letzte Maurenkönig,'' Op. 49, on the historical theme of the capture of Granada, premiered at the Berlin Court Opera on 21 April 1892, and appeared in Prague and New York City the following year. It did not stay in the repertoire, but its ballet music was very popular for a number of years. He wrote the three-act ballet ''Laurin'' in 1896.
Recordings
Ilana Vered Ilana Vered ( he, אילנה ורד; born December 6, 1943 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is a concert pianist and professor of piano.
Biography
From age 13 to 15 Vered attended the Paris Conservatoire, which awarded her first prize in piano upon her graduat ...
made the first complete recording of Moszkowski's ''Études de Virtuosité'', Op. 72, in 1970.
Seta Tanyel recorded three volumes of Moszkowski's solo piano works from 1993 to 1998, issued concurrently on Hyperion/Helios records and Collins Classics.
Ian Hobson
Ian Hobson is an English pianist, conductor and teacher, and is a professor at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and at Florida State University. His pianistic repertoire spans the baroque to the contemporary, but he specialises in th ...
released the first volume of a projected complete traversal of Moskowski's solo piano music, on Toccata Classics. Vol. 1 was released in 2021. Concurrently, Toccata Classics has released recordings of Moskowski's orchestral works and piano concerti.
The Piano Concerto in E major was first recorded by Michael Ponti
Michael Ponti (29 October 1937 – 17 October 2022) was a German-American classical pianist. He was the first to record the complete piano works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. He made more than 80 recordings, around 50 of rarely play ...
, and more recently by Piers Lane
Piers Lane (born 8 January 1958) is an Australian classical pianist. His performance career has taken him to more than 40 countries. His concerto repertoire exceeds 75 works.
Early life
Lane's English father and Australian mother met while au ...
and Joseph Moog. The Suite in G minor for 2 violins and piano, Op. 71, has been recorded by such duos as Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman ( he, יצחק פרלמן; born August 31, 1945) is an Israeli-American violinist widely considered one of the greatest violinists in the world. Perlman has performed worldwide and throughout the United States, in venues that hav ...
and Pinchas Zukerman
Pinchas Zukerman ( he, פנחס צוקרמן, born 16 July 1948) is an Israeli-American violinist, violist and conductor.
Life and career
Zukerman was born in Tel Aviv, to Jewish parents and Holocaust survivors Yehuda and Miriam Lieberman Zuk ...
.
Selected discography
*Moritz Moszkowski and Paderewski
Ignacy Jan Paderewski (; – 29 June 1941) was a Polish pianist and composer who became a spokesman for Polish independence. In 1919, he was the new nation's Prime Minister and foreign minister during which he signed the Treaty of Versail ...
: The Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 1. (Piers Lane
Piers Lane (born 8 January 1958) is an Australian classical pianist. His performance career has taken him to more than 40 countries. His concerto repertoire exceeds 75 works.
Early life
Lane's English father and Australian mother met while au ...
)
*Moritz Moszkowski and Adolf Schulz-Evler Adolf Andrey Schulz-Evler (12 December 185215 May 1905) was a Polish-born composer.
Born in Radom, Poland (at that time part of the Russian Empire), he studied at the Warsaw Conservatory, then under Carl Tausig in Berlin. From 1884 to 1904 he taug ...
: The Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 68 ( Ludmil Angelov)
*Moritz Moszkowski and Mieczysław Karłowicz
Mieczysław Karłowicz (, 11 December 18768 February 1909) was a Polish composer and conductor.
Life
Mieczysław Karłowicz was born in Vishneva, in the Vilna Governorate of the Russian Empire (now in Belarus) into a noble family belonging to ...
: The Romantic Violin Concerto, Vol. 5 (Tasmin Little
Tasmin Little (born 13 May 1965) is an English classical violinist. She is a concerto soloist and also performs as a recitalist and chamber musician. She has released numerous albums, winning the Critics Award at the Classic Brit Awards in 2011 ...
)
*Moritz Moszkowski: Piano Music Vol. 1, 2 & 3 (Seta Tanyel)
*Moritz Moszkowski: Piano Concerto In E major & Suite for Orchestra "From Foreign Lands". Markus Pawlik, Antoni Wit
*Moritz Moszkowski: Serenata. John McCormack, Fritz Kreisler
*Moritz Moszkowski: Vingt Petites Études, Op. 91 & Brahms: Hungarian Dances. Esther Budiardjo
See also
*Paul de Schlözer
Paul de Schlözer or Paweł Schlözer (1841 or 18421 July 1898) was a Polish pianist and teacher of German descent. He was possibly also a composer, but the only two works attributed to him may have been written by Polish composer Moritz Moszkowsk ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
*Maurice Hinson, ''Moszkowski – 20 Short Studies Op. 91'' (Alfred Masterwork Edition), Alfred Music Publishing (2002),
*Maurice Hinton, ''Moszkowski – 15 virtuosic etudes: "Per aspera" Op. 72'' (Masterwork Edition Series), Alfred Music Publishing (1992),
*Gdal Saleski, ''Famous musicians of Jewish origin,'' pp. 123–124, Bloch Pub. Co. – New York (1949)
External links
*
*
Moritz Moszkowski recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings
The Discography of American Historical Recordings (DAHR) is a database of master recordings made by American record companies during the 78rpm era. The DAHR provides some of these original recordings, free of charge, via audio streaming, along with ...
.
How I wrote the Spanish Dances
on IMSLP
The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public-domain music scores. The project, which uses MediaWiki software ...
Hyperion Recordings: includes audio samples
on Hyperion Records.com.uk
on Editions Silvertrust.com
Etude, Opus 24, No.1
by Moritz Moszkowski, played by Felix Fox on the Ampico
American Piano Company (Ampico) was an American piano manufacturer formed in 1908 through the merger of Wm. Knabe & Co., Chickering & Sons, and Foster-Armstrong. They later purchased the Mason & Hamlin piano company as their flagship piano. The ...
Reproducing System, circa 1920, Roll #101003L
Guitarre: pour piano, Opus 45, No.2
at University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
Robarts Library
The John P. Robarts Research Library, commonly referred to as Robarts Library, is the main humanities and social sciences library of the University of Toronto Libraries and the largest individual library in the university. Opened in 1973 and n ...
Scores by Moritz Moszkowski
in digital library Polona
Polona is a Polish digital library, which provides digitized books, magazines, graphics, maps, music, fliers and manuscripts from collections of the National Library of Poland and co-operating institutions. It began its operation in 2006.
Colle ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moszkowski, Moritz
1854 births
1925 deaths
19th-century classical composers
19th-century classical pianists
19th-century German composers
19th-century German male musicians
20th-century classical composers
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century German composers
20th-century German male musicians
Berlin University of the Arts alumni
Composers for piano
Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society
German classical pianists
19th-century German Jews
German male classical composers
German pianists
German male pianists
German Romantic composers
Jewish classical composers
Jewish classical pianists
Male classical pianists
People from the Province of Silesia
Musicians from Wrocław
Polish male classical composers
Polish Romantic composers