Ignaz Pleyel: Nocturne/Serenade in D major Op.27, Ben 201a

Ignace Joseph Pleyel (French: [plɛjɛl]; German: [ˈplaɪl̩];

(18 June 1757 – 14 November 1831)

was an Austrian-born French composer and piano builder of the Classical period.

 

Nocturne/Serenade in D major Op.27, Ben 201a

Vilmos Szabadi (violin), Peter Szabo (cello), Erdody Chamber Orchestra, Zsolt Szefcsik (conductor)

1. Allegro – 00:00​ 2. Minuetto – 12:22​ 3. Adagio – 21:55​ 4. Rondo. Allegro assai – 27:27

 

He was born in Ruppersthal in Lower Austria, the son of a schoolmaster named Martin Pleyl. While still young, he probably studied with Johann Baptist Vanhal, and from 1772 he became the pupil of Joseph Haydn in Eisenstadt. Attracted to the benefits associated with an organist position, Pleyel moved to Strasbourg, France in 1783 to work alongside Franz Xaver Richter, the maître de chapelle at the Strasbourg Cathedral. After establishing himself in France, Pleyel voluntarily called himself by the French version of his name, Ignace. While he was the assistant maître de chapelle at Strasbourg Cathedral, he wrote more works than during any other period in his musical career. After Richter's death in 1789, Pleyel assumed the function of full maître de chapelle. In 1791, the French Revolution abolished musical performances in church as well as public concerts. Seeking alternative employment, Pleyel traveled to London, where he led the "Professional Concerts" organized by Wilhelm Cramer. In this capacity Pleyel inadvertently played the role of his teacher's rival, as Haydn was at the same time leading the concert series organized by Johann Peter Salomon. Although the two composers were rivals professionally, they remained on good terms personally. Pleyel moved to Paris in 1795. In 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. The publishing business lasted for 39 years and published about 4,000 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. In 1807, Pleyel became a manufacturer of pianos. Pleyel was prolific, composing 41 symphonies, 70 string quartets and several operas. Many of these works date from the Strasbourg period; Pleyel's production tailed off after he had become a businessman. Pleyel is one instance of the phenomenon of a composer who was very famous in his own time but currently obscure. Keefe (2005) describes a "craze for his music c. 1780–1800", and quotes a number of contemporary witnesses to this surge. For instance François-Joseph Fétis 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 twenty years, there was no amateur or professional musician who did not delight in his genius." (Recent scholarship has suggested that the theme for the Variations on a Theme by Haydn, by Johannes Brahms, Op. 56a, was probably composed not by Haydn but by Ignaz Pleyel.)