Int. Ignaz Joseph Pleyel Gesellschaft (IPG)

A-3701 Ruppersthal 137, Austria;
ZVR Zahl:107794151, Tel 0043/2955/70645,
E-Mail: adolf.ehrentraud.pleyel@aon.at, Internet: www.pleyel.at


On 10 December 1995 the President of the Ignaz Pleyel Drama Society and proponent of the IPG, Adolf Ehrentraud, organised the founding meeting, and on 5 March 1996 the constituting General Meeting of the organisation named "Internationale Ignaz Joseph Pleyel Gesellschaft" (International Ignaz J. Pleyel Society) (IPG) took place. The goals and purpose of the organisation may be found in the statutes approved by the General Meeting as well as in the decisions felled by the Board of the Internationale Ignaz Joseph Pleyel Society (IPG), hereafter IPG, and are summarised as follows:

The non-profit organisation aims to be of public utility and is not politically active. Any excess funds must be employed to further the aims of the organisation.

The IPG strives for the rediscovery of the unjustifiably forgotten composer, piano-maker, publisher, musician, conductor and, last but not least, co-founder of the then and now so famous "Salle Pleyel" in Paris, Ignaz Joseph Pleyel (1757, Ruppersthal -1831, Paris), of the relatives, acquaintances, and musical and professional colleagues who preceded and followed him.

This is done by means of research, maintenance and presentation of the life and work of this great son of our homeland and European, who was born on 18 June 1757 in Ruppersthal and died in Paris. His life and his work are presented or performed within the framework of guided museum tours, concerts, opera performances, matinees, exhibitions, publications (for instance as a first, 272-page monograph on Pleyel), museum catalogues, other activities (for instance violin and piano-playing competitions for youth), and symposia, either in the Ignaz Joseph Pleyel Museum itself or in other suitable venues. The IPG aims to participate in the complete critical publication of his œuvre, and to this end cooperates with the music universities of Vienna and Graz.

The organisation has also set itself the goal to maintain and care for the old "Pleyl School" (part of the birth home of Ignaz Joseph Pleyel), which was restored and ceremonially opened as the "Pleyel Museum, Ruppersthal" on 5 September 1998 by the Honorary President of the IPG, Lower Austria's Governor Dr. Erwin Pröll. The IPG is responsible for the maintenance and care of the exhibits in the Pleyel Museum, in particular of the original Ignaz Joseph Pleyel grand piano (opus 1614) and the table piano (opus 7134).

The society aims toward the creation of its own concert hall (Salle Pleyel in Ruppersthal). The IPG also strives to constantly expand the museum's collection from the œuvre of Ignaz Joseph Pleyel and his relatives, in order to attract visitors from Austria and abroad to this publicly accessible and world-wide unique memorial to Pleyel. Guided tours take place all year in the Pleyel Museum, four days a week. The tours led by the museum's director are supplemented by contributions from Pleyel's (or the IPG's) work by video, DVD, audio, or other systems.

For many years the IPG has maintained contact with domestic and foreign institutions, who deal in a similar fashion with the work of Pleyel's former colleagues in composition. The society also maintains extensive contact with honorary colleagues in the United States, New Zealand, Germany and France, without whose contributions it could not attain its organisational goals. Unfortunately, since its foundation the Pleyel Society is the only institution world-wide dealing with the life and work Ignaz Joseph Pleyel.

The IPG expresses its gratitude to all public offices (for instance the Cultural Division of the Province of Lower Austria, the Austrian Federal Cultural Office, and the Municipality of its home base), its sponsors, and all who support and/or attend its activities. It is also grateful to all members who show appreciation for its work by paying their membership dues. The IPG is constantly striving to expand its membership at home and abroad. Members and interested persons are regularly informed of all performances and other activities, either by post or virtually (e-mail or via the Internet - Homepage: www.pleyel.at).

Dear admirers of Pleyel, please continue to attend our performances, where Pleyel's wonderful work forms the centre of all activities. In this way you will help us to rediscover the former conqueror of the musical world, Ignaz Joseph Pleyel, who was respected by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart and taught by Franz Joseph Haydn, and who left Ruppersthal for the world to obtain glory. A composer whose work is not performed is dead! A composer does live on in us, however, if we can hear his works – and thanks to the IPG Pleyel is more alive than ever before.

Your IPG