Tipped by Mozart as Haydn’s heir, Ignace Pleyel is better known today for his family company’s pianos than his music. So, asks Nick Forton, what happened?
Had you been around in the Paris of 1840 and the name of Pleyel come up in conversation, the reaction might have been: ‘Mais oui. Les pianos merveilleux fabriqués ici par le célèbre Monsieur Camille Pleyel.’ Your neighbour might have elaborated and told you that said Pleyel was the preferred piano manufacturer of the famous pianist and composer Monsieur Frédéric Chopin, no less.
But 40 years earlier, if you had been in Paris – or anywhere else in Europe – the name of Pleyel would have elicited a different reaction: ‘Ah oui – mais tout le monde connais Monsieur Ignace Pleyel, le célèbre compositeur.’ Indeed, everyone did know Ignace Pleyel, the famous composer. It is hard to comprehend today that Ignaz Joseph Pleyel (1757-1831) should once have been the most famous and prolific composer of his time. François-Joseph Fétis, an influential 19th-century music critic, wrote, ‘What composer ever created more of a craze than Pleyel? Who enjoyed a more universal reputation or a more absolute domination of the field of instrumental music? Over more than 20 years, there was no amateur or professional musician who did not delight in his genius.’ The US musicologist Arthur Mendel agreed: ‘Pleyel’s compositions were so popular in Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, London and the Netherlands that for a time there seemed to be no other composers besides him.’ His fame spread to the US. The town of Nantucket, Massachusetts – a whaling port – formed a Pleyel Society in 1822 ‘to chasten the taste of auditors’, announced a newspaper.
This story is from the April 2017 edition of BBC Music Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the April 2017 edition of BBC Music Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
FESTIVAL GUIDE 2024
It's that time of year again... Spring has finally sprung, and along with the promised sunshine we welcome a brand-new season of glorious summer music.
The mighty Sampson
As soprano Carolyn Sampson turns 50, she tells Ashutosh Khandekar about the development of her voice through a remarkable catalogue of recordings
Music to die for
From wrathful Verdi to ethereal Fauré, there are many different ways to compose a Requiem, as Jeremy Pound discovers
Avian anthems
From Vivaldi to Messiaen, composers have often been inspired by birdsong. But accurately mimicking chirrups and tweets in music is far more difficult than it sounds, finds Tom Stewart
THE BIG 400!
BBC Music Magazine has reached its 400th issue! To celebrate, we look back over eight milestone issues since the very firstin 1992
Northern light
From her first piano lesson, composer Errollyn Wallen has lived and breathed music; and though inspired by a range of styles, her composing is a deeply personal expression, as she tells Kate Wakeling
Felix Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor
Jo Talbot celebrates the Mozart of the 19th century’ as she searches out the finest recordings of this masterful work for piano, violin and cello
Antonio Salieri
Forget the hate-filled murderer of Mozart, says Alexandra Wilson; the real Salieri was an opera composer of considerable standing
Aix-en-Provence France
Rebecca Franks breathes in the spring air in the popular southern city, where the music making sparkles and the sun always shines
Composing is like breathing. It's just something I do, like a hobby, really...or an addiction
The world's most performed classical composer, a small, black-suited figure with a mop of white hair and mutton-chop whiskers, stands on the huge Brucknerhaus stage, almost invisible among the sea of musicians.