If I say “Pleyel”, many people would think “Chopin”. Because Pleyel is most famous for his pianos. An early piano, which still sounded a bit like a harpsichord, was loved by Frederic Chopin. The was only one concert in Paris performed by Chopin – it happened in Pleyel Hall. Haydn was Pleyel’s mentor. Like Haydn, Pleyel was very successful in London.
We are also grateful to Pleyel for the scores he published: i”n 1797 he set up a business as a music publisher (“Maison Pleyel”), which among other works produced a complete edition of Haydn’s string quartets (1801), as well as the first miniature scores for study (the Bibliothèque Musicale, “musical library”). The publishing business lasted for 39 years and published about 4000 works during this time, including compositions by Adolphe Adam, Luigi Boccherini, Ludwig van Beethoven, Muzio Clementi, Johann Baptist Cramer, Johann Ladislaus Dussek, Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Georges Onslow.”
But Ignace Pleyel is an accomplished composer and musician on his own. A rare case of a composer famous during his life and hardly played or even known now. 41 symphonies, 70 string quartets and several string quintets and operas.
Ignace Pleyel was born in Austria, in 1757, in Ruppersthal. Now Pleyel’s museum there is not only a museum clearly worth visiting but also a concert hall.
Pleyel’s works on Pleyel piano.