Ignaz Pleyel (1757-1831) was an Austrian composer, music publisher and piano builder, and studied composition with Joseph Haydn. He was a prolific composer, writing at least 42 symphonies, 70 string quartets and several operas and, although famous and successful in his own time, his music is unjustly neglected today. Pleyel worked in Italy and London, lived and worked in Strasbourg for a number of years, eventually settling in Paris in 1795, where he founded a music shop and publishing house.
The popularity of his music in his own lifetime probably made him one of the most famous composers throughout Europe and beyond, and a Pleyel Society was
founded in the whaling port of Nantucket (Massachusetts, USA) in 1822. His music has been described as “of exceptional quality, harmonically rich, structurally
inventive and with highly original themes.!