Great Violinists and PianistsFerris, George T. (George Titus)
History
Great Violinists and Pianists
Ferris, George T. (George Titus)
Pianists -- Biography; Violinists -- Biography
In January, 1825, Moscheles, in the course of his musical wanderings,
gave several concerts at Hamburg. Among the crowd of listeners who
came to hear the great pianist was Charlotte Embden, the daughter of an
excellent Hamburg family. She was enchanted by the playing of Moscheles,
and, when she accidentally made the acquaintance of the performer at the
house of a mutual acquaintance, the couple quickly became enamored of
each other. A brief engagement of less than a month was followed by
marriage, and so Moscheles entered into a relation singularly felicitous
in all the elements which make domestic life most blessed. After a brief
tour in the Rhenish cities, and a visit to Paris, Moscheles proceeded to
London, where he had determined to make his home, for in no country had
such genuine and unaffected cordiality boon shown him, and nowhere
were the rewards of musical talent, whether as teacher, virtuoso, or
composer, more satisfying to the man of high ambition. He made London
his home for twenty years, and during this time became one of the most
prominent figures in the art circles of that great city. Moscheles's
mental accomplishments and singular geniality of nature contributed,
with his very great abilities as a musician, to give him a position
attained by but few artists. He gave lessons to none but the most
talented pupils, and his services were sought by the most wealthy
families of the English capital, though the ability to pay great prices
was by no means a passport to the good graces of Moscheles. Among
the pupils who early came under the charge of this great master was
Thalberg, who even then was a brilliant player, but found in the exact
knowledge and great experience of Moscheles that which gave the
crowning finish to his style. Busy in teaching, composing, and public
performance; busy in responding to the almost incessant demands made by
social necessity on one who was not only intimate in the best circles
of London society, but the center to whom all foreign artists of merit
gravitated instantly they arrived in London; busy in confidential
correspondence with all the great musicians of Europe, who discussed
with the genial and sympathetic Moscheles all their plans and
aspirations, and to whom they turned in their moments of trouble, he
was indeed a busy man; and had it not been for the loving labors of his
wife, who was his secretary, his musical copyist, and his assistant in
a myriad of ways, he would have been unequal to his burden. Moscheles's
diary tells the story of a man whose life, though one of tireless
industry, was singularly serene and happy, and without those salient
accidents and vicissitudes which make up the material of a picturesque
life.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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