Pianist, composer and conductor Ignaz Moscheles was one of the most respected musicians of his time, and throughout his long life was at the social and musical heart of Europe. Studies with Beethoven’s old teachers, Albrechtsberger and Salieri, equipped him with a first-class compositional technique used to notable effect in a series of works for his own instrument, the piano. Moscheles also wrote a delightful corpus of works for flute and piano, seldom heard today, yet full of vivacious tunes, contrapuntal interest, and some technically demanding passages which reflect his own status as a virtuoso pianist.

Moscheles is remembered as a pianist and composer, almost exclusively for his own instrument. His big concertos were performed by many of the leading virtuosi of the past century. Interest in his piano works has revived of late, but this disc is devoted to his much rarer, seldom heard works for flute and piano. Naxos has already released a Concertante in F major for flute and orchestra by him in a disc called The Romantic Flute [8555977]. The works in this current disc are lively, full of delightful tunes and occasionally demanding. They have many lighter features too, and should surprise those who know only Moscheles’ piano works.