Ignaz Moscheles’ First Public Concert
Prague: Konviktsaale
↓Programme
| Piano Concerto | Master Moscheles | |
| Variations for Piano and Flute | Master Moscheles, [?] | Moscheles |
| Quartet [in D major] for Piano, Flute, | Master Moscheles, [?], | Moscheles |
| Clarinet, Bassoon | [?], [?] |
| Principal Instrumentalists: Master Moscheles |
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Moscheles: ‘Would to God I could have kept for years my excellent and judicious father! He was taken from us suddenly by typhus fever, and, as a boy of fourteen years of age, I stood weeping by the side of the coffin [on 23 April 1808]. Time has soothed my sorrow, but never chilled my gratitude and love. His wish repeated over and over again during his illness, to hear my first composition, was destined never to be fulfilled; but his death, and the not too affluent circumstances in which he left his family, were the reasons of my first public appearance in Prague. Dionys Weber’s opinion being that I ought to rely solely on myself, and was quite able to do so, he allowed me to finish the concerto which I had been working at, and then to give a musical soiree, where I was much applauded and earned something for my pains. My mother was greatly comforted by this event, but an old uncle declared I was on the road to ruin, and would end by playing at dancing parties; that if I had taken to business I might have had the good fortune to find my way to the wealthy city of Hamburg, and who could say I might not have married the daughter of some great merchant!’. [RMM, 4-5.]
Reviews
Note: Like his previous performance on 10 March 1807, both reviews claimed that he was two years younger. In 1807 they claimed that Moscheles was eleven at the time, therefore for his concert in 1808 they wrote that he was twelve, instead of his actual age, which was fourteen.
Prager Oberpostamtszeitung (March 25, 1808) : 37.
Die hierortigen Herrn Liebhaber der Tonkunst genießen seit einigen Wochen das Vergnügen, mannigfaltige Virtuosen des In – und Auslandes in öffentlichen Konzerten zu hören. Erst gestern gab der junge Fortepianospieler Moscheles, ein 12jähriger Israelite, eine ausgezeichnete öffentliche Musikakademie im Konviktsaale, seine Fertigkeit und Präcision, die er durch unsern berühmten Komponisten Herrn Dionysius Weber erlangte, ward allgemein bewendert.
Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (May 4, 1808): 504.
Am 24sten gab J. Moscheles, ein junger Israelite von 12 Jahren, Konzert. (Ob man die Kleinheit seiner Gestalt nicht dazu benutzt, ihn um ein paar Jahre jünger zu machen, was er doch in Rücksicht seiner Kunstfertigkeit nicht bedurfte?) Es war sein erstes öffentliches Konzert. Wir haben seiner schon im vorigen Jahre bey den Konzerten der Hrn. Möser und Sandrini gedacht; allein heuer erschien er auch als Komponist eines Konzerts furs P. F., eines Quatuors für P. F., Flöte, Klarinette und Fagott, und von Variationen für P. F. und Flöte. Hat sein Lehrer, Hr. Weber, an diesen Arbeiten wirklich nicht mehr Antheil, als den des Lehrers: so verspricht dieses junge Männchen viel für die Zukunft und dürfte bey reifen Jahren vielleicht die Bewunderung der kunstliebenden Welt in hohem Grade erregen.
Ignaz Moscheles' Concert Life 