Ignaz Joseph Pleyel

Pleyel made his name three times: as a composer, as a music publisher and as a piano maker. Born near Vienna in 1757, he was taught by Haydn and initially held kapellmeister posts in Austria before touring Italy in the early 1780s, where his works included hurdy-gurdy concertos for the King of Naples. From 1784, he held a post at Strasbourg Cathedral but the French Revolution forced him to flee to London. During Haydn’s visits to England, the press attempted to whip up a rivalry between the two men, although they remained friends. From 1795, Pleyel lived in Paris, where he set up a successful music publishing company that issued the first miniature scores, and, in 1807, he founded a firm of piano makers whose instruments were favoured by musicians such as Chopin and Moscheles. Pleyel died in 1831, leaving behind a substantial output of symphonies, concertos and chamber music in a style not dissimilar to his erstwhile teacher’s.