Pleyel's piano manufacturing company, Maison Pleyel, became the largest in Europe, with his pianos used by famous musicians like Chopin and Grieg, and exported worldwide.
Composer Biography
Ignaz Joseph Pleyel, born in 1757, was the youngest of eight children and showed prodigious musical talent early on, studying with Johann Baptist Vanhal and Joseph Haydn.
Cultural Impact
Pleyel's music was so popular that his string quartets and piano sonatas were copied and circulated in astonishing numbers across Europe, making him a dominant figure in instrumental music for over two decades.
Cultural Impact
Pleyel founded a highly successful publishing house in Paris in 1797, which issued over 4000 titles, including Haydn's complete string quartets and works by Beethoven and Mozart, and also pioneered miniature scores.
Composition History
Pleyel was forced to become his own publisher due to widespread unauthorized reprints and altered versions of his works, which deprived him of income and distorted his original compositions.
Cultural Impact
Pleyel, the son of a village headmaster, opened the Salons Pleyel concert hall in Paris in 1828, which became a favorite venue for Parisian high society and hosted the debuts of artists like Chopin and Saint-Saëns.
Recording & Production
This album features the first recording of Pleyel's Bassoon Concerto in B flat Major, Ben 107, and the Symphony à grand orchestre in G major, Ben 156, in its original form with timpani.
