Ignaz Pleyel, the 18th century hope for the future on Spotify

Ignaz Joseph Pleyel’s music can be described in two quotes. His early music, full of promise, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in a letter to his father “It will be a lucky day for music if, when the time comes, Pleyel should replace Haydn”. Boom. Yet a later quote by an English newspaper called the morning herald of London shows why the mature Pleyel was so immense popular in the late 18th century, but is now almost completely forgotten: ”Pleyel is becoming even more popular than his master [Haydn], as his works are characterized less by the intricacies of science than the charm of simplicity and feeling.” 

The charm predominates, especially in the works selected below, with Pleyel’s speciality, the so called “concertante symphony”, a piano trio played by the excellent trio Joachim and a symphony of which the last movement sums up all qualities attributed to Pleyel in the London newspaper come forward. 

Ignaz Josef Pleyel (1757-1831)

-Symphony concertante in F major for 

flute, bassoon, oboe, horn and orchestra (1805)

Gaby Pas-van Riet, flute

Anne Angerer, oboe

Wolfgang Wipfler, horn

SWR Radio Symphony orchestra Stuttgart 

Johannes Moesus, conductor

-Piano trio in e minor op 16 no 5 (1788)

Trio Joachim

Massimo Palumbo, piano

Sulea Mullaj, violin

Sara Airoldi, cello 

-Symphony in C major op 66 (1803)

London Mozart players

Matthias Bamert, conductor

https://open.spotify.com/user/otterhouse/playlist/3iSwa8zSJyBKtAl75ErcU4

(Spotify Webplayer link)