Ignaz Moscheles, a German composer, born of Jewish parents in Prague, May 30, 1704, died March 10,1870. At eight years of age he received musical instruction from F. D. Weber. In three years he became a skilful pianist; and at 14 he was introduced at Vienna to Haydn and Beethoven, and by their advice became the pupil of Albrechtsberger, with whom he made rapid progress. As a pianist he competed with Hummel, then reputed the first performer in Germany. After an extensive continental tour he in 1820 went to England, where he resided during the next 26 years. From 1825 to 1846 he was professor in the academy of London and conductor of the philharmonic concerts, after which he became musical professor in the conservatory of Leipsic. Probably no musician has so greatly influenced the cultivation in England of the classical music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and kindred composers, or so fully developed a taste for pianoforte music and a knowledge of the resources of the instrument. As a performer of the sonatas and concertos of Beethoven he was without a superior. His compositions for the pianoforte are finished specimens of classical music, and his trios, quintets, etc, for the violin and other instruments, evince great theoretical knowledge.

He translated into English Schindler's "Life of Beethoven," to which he added valuable notes. - See Aus Moscheles's Leben, edited by his wife (2 vols., Leipsic, 1872-'3), and adapted from the German by A. D. Coleridge (London, 1873).