Full disclosure: I have followed Joseph Moog’s career with increasing admiration and more than usual interest over the past decade and more. One reason is that I was commissioned by his then record label, Onyx, to write the booklet notes to accompany his first album for them (‘Scarlatti Illuminated’ it was called and with an eye-catching cover). Another reason was that, almost uniquely among his peers, he wrote a note to thank me for what I had written. Subsequently I was asked to write the booklets for most of his recordings for Onyx. He has since changed label – he has been signed by Naïve – and it is his second recording for his new label that we are charged to discuss on an early-morning Zoom call. It is called ‘Belle Époque’ and is very different to the kind of programme we have come to expect from him. Moog is keen to expand.

‘The new disc is very much linked with how it all began. It’s a kind of “two-in-one”. I have recorded a lot of complete cycles over the last few years – the Brahms concertos, the three Chopin sonatas, the Liszt sonatas, Debussy’s Études and many more. And I thought it’s time to get back to my roots. Because one of the main reasons I started playing the piano is because of my parents and their friends. They are not pianists but they love piano music. And they had a lot of pianophiles in their circle of friends. When I was two or three years old these friends would visit regularly and they would always bring some treasures – scores, manuscripts, videos, LPs and CDs. This was pre-YouTube. Nowadays you can easily find all these things, stuff you couldn’t get hold of back then. For example, Cherkassky’s recitals in Japan – things like that. I was exposed to all these extraordinary artists and composer-pianists and rarities, very early – a long time before I knew all of the Mozart concertos, for instance. So I really didn’t have this academic approach, adding notes one by one, starting from Bach’s Inventions and then moving onwards. It was really a mess, the way I got exposed to the repertoire!

‘So I have all these crazy bits of random music in my head. These meetings with my parents’ friends were very atmospheric. They would come and visit many times during the cold and dark winter days. We would light some candles and listen to this music or watch the videos and there was always a very curious atmosphere of expectation, of discovering something together. And this atmosphere is what I tried to live through again and share with the audience. That’s how the original idea for “Belle Époque” came about. I thought why not invite the listeners to discover some of these smaller pieces – something similar to a box of chocolates – where you would explore and get to know something new. Not all of these pieces are rarities but many of them are unknown. This sort of coincided with the change of label and also then going back to my original profile as well, because I’ve been performing more of the standard repertoire in recent years – though I never like to differentiate between standard and niche. It’s better to look at the complete repertoire as it is, not differentiating between rare pieces and masterpieces but always focusing on quality. The works by female composers [on the album] I included not just to have some female representation but because it’s great music.’

Opening up the box of chocolates, we find a delectable selection of 21 short works, no more than seven or eight of them familiar to the average pianophile (the two Kreisler-Rachmaninov transcriptions, for instance, Liszt’s La leggierezza, Ravel’s Jeux d’eau) mixed with unfamiliar titles by well-known composers: Chaminade’s Capriccio appassionata, for example, Respighi’s Studio and Sibelius’s Granen. Plus some real rarities – Mélisande by Mel Bonis anyone? Jeu des ondes from Leschetizky? Pierre Petit’s Bagatelle? Music, in short, that needs someone completely attuned to the genre to bring it off successfully – which means stylistic empathy, ease of execution and above all charm. Moog delivers all in spades.

Moog was born in Ludwigshafen in 1987. Though not pianists, both Moog’s parents were professional musicians (now retired), his mother a violinist, his father a clarinettist. ‘They both played in orchestras for more than three decades and I would be with them attending rehearsals and concerts very early on. I had the privilege of listening to Bruno Leonardo Gelber playing the Brahms concertos when I was maybe three or four years old. Skrowaczewski conducting Bruckner symphonies, and Argerich in her prime playing Prokofiev Three. Things like that. My mum played in a radio orchestra in Saarbrücken, Germany’s smallest radio orchestra – Myung-Whun Chung was the Chief Conductor there for a for a while – and my dad played in Ludwigshafen, where Segerstam and Eschenbach were the conductors. So these were golden years in the ’80s and ’90s. They had great funding, and they would do things like the Turangalîla-Symphonie and the big, big repertoire. So I had the chance to listen to all these works live. It really had a huge impact on me, and I think it’s the main reason why I wanted to become a musician and a pianist.’

Having absorbed all these oddities what was the next stage in his musical development? ‘The next step was my father teaching me how to read and write music, without having any further intentions. He just realised I had a huge interest in music and it was part of the general education. They didn’t really have anything else in mind but then I would spend two to three hours a day improvising and just trying to find my way on my own. When I was four or five, I met my first piano teacher who was a jazz pianist and Baroque expert both at the same time – which is not so surprising if you look at Bach and jazz and the connections between both. He continued to feed me extraordinary repertoire. We would work on Bach Inventions and Bartók’s Mikrokosmos at the same time. He just showed me all kinds of styles and different genres of music.’

The family home is in Neustadt (‘It’s a very common town name – I think we have 27 of them in Germany so you always have to specify which one!’), not far from Heidelberg and close to Stuttgart and Frankfurt. ‘It’s in the southwest. It has a very mild climate – some people say it’s the Tuscany of Germany because of all the vineyards. My dad always told everyone that we lived in the middle [by which he means midway between Saarbrücken and Ludwigshafen] but it’s not true. My mum had to drive 90 minutes whereas his daily trip was 30 minutes!’

At the age of eight Moog was initially enrolled as a ‘Young Student’ at the Academy of Music in Karlsruhe. ‘I was a guest listener. I was able to have a glimpse into a student’s life already. My parents would drive me, or I would take the train. It was around 45 minutes – not too far away – but it was usually a day trip.’ Eight-year-old Joseph on the train on his own? ‘Sometimes, yes. It was safer back then. When I was seven or eight the big shock came along when my first academic piano teacher said this guy is a great talent but he’s completely wild. He will have to stop improvising for half a year and then just do Czerny and Bach and learn proper technique. That was the hardest time I think.’

His progress then accelerated. This was, he says, a very important period for him regarding practice and overcoming obstacles, not just for piano playing but for all his life. ‘I hope I am able to do the same for my kids in some way because it is so essential to learn that effort will be rewarded by more skill. This is a key element. Once I discovered this I was so inspired and I found that in the later études of Czerny, for example, there is a lot of music. Many pianists say “Oh I have nightmares about Czerny and all those Burgmüller études”, but I can’t say that for me. I like playing those! And then I learned more of the standard repertoire – the Mozart concertos, the Beethoven concertos – but this music wasn’t as close to my heart, I would say, as the composer-pianists of the fin de siècle. Because that’s how I started. That’s where I came from. I learned quickly. I was not the quickest in the world – there’s always somebody who is more like a computer or has more talent – but I was curious. I needed food all the time!’ He is also a quick reader, thanks to being exposed to all kinds of scores and styles very early on. ‘There was nothing that could shock me easily, even if I looked at Sorabji scores it didn’t shock me too much!’

Moog won a prize in Switzerland in 2006. He was 18 and the award included a recording for Claves, although this – so I discovered – was not his first experience of recording. That came when he was 13 and the result has never been commercially available. ‘I wanted to try out the process of recording. It was a mixed programme of Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Szymanowski and Brahms, the sort of stuff I was playing at the time. One could say I was precocious, yes, but I wanted to see what it felt like to record an album, and I discovered how different it is from performing. I was quite nervous, I remember. Listening to yourself like this for the first time was eye- and ear-opening!’

That prize was a turning point and, after the Claves recording (both Liszt concertos and Totentanz), Moog began to get more engagements, especially with orchestra. Then, after lessons with Bernd Glemser at the Academy of Music in Würzburg, he went to study with Arie Vardi at the Academy for Music, Theatre and Media in Hanover. Vardi had had great success with his pupils in competitions (Yundi Li, Boris Giltburg, Beatrice Rana, Martin Helmchen and Francesco Piemontesi, among many others) and encouraged Moog to follow suit. Moog was unwilling to do so because of the limited repertoire that was (generally) requested, and more eager to learn the Saint-Saëns concertos than the music required for a competition. Vardi respected his wish and the two worked together. ‘He would always try to have a good atmosphere in his class. There would be at least five students listening when you received your lessons and he would always talk to the group like in a master class. He would say, “Well, this is Joseph and he likes crazy stuff and he will play for us today Saint-Saëns’s Number Four. Now is anybody willing to accompany him?” For me, this would be every day in Hanover between 2007 and about 2010 or 2011.’

Playing concerts while he was studying meant there were schedule clashes, with missed classes and exam opportunities, but by now he was an established name in Germany, starting to explore Europe and with trips to South America or Asia. In 2011 he made his American debut (both Liszt concertos with the Colorado Symphony) and the following year began his collaboration with the Askonas Holt agency, who developed his international career. It also saw the beginning of his relationship with the Onyx label. ‘The initial contact with Matthew [label manager Matthew Cosgrove] was so fruitful and so full of enthusiasm and trust initially because we are from the same world regarding curiosity and repertoire. For the first recording [of Scarlatti], at the photo shoot in London for the cover, Matthew was there and we had a great conversation. We spoke about repertoire and sharing ideas and future concepts. I was quite free regarding repertoire and recording projects and Matthew was very open and very supportive.’

Many of Moog’s earlier recordings demonstrate a talent for unexpected couplings. Rachmaninov’s Third with Rubinstein’s Fourth. Tchaikovsky’s ‘Grand’ Sonata with Xaver Scharwenka’s splendid Sonata No 2. Or Brahms’s Second Concerto with the Strauss Burleske, and Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances with other two-piano works by York Bowen and Nikolai Medtner. Best of all: the Grieg Concerto paired with Moszkowski’s E major Concerto. ‘That was the most successful as it led to my winning a Gramophone Award [as Young Artist of the Year] in 2015. All of them have received great reviews. I haven’t had any recording that was a failure, so to speak. Record companies by and large are so resistant to going outside the standard repertoire but when they do it very often pays off. This is not only my experience, but many other artists as well as audiences. They are way more open and curious than most of the promoters think.’

In 2016, Joseph got married and had two little daughters. Sadly, the relationship did not last and the couple separated two years ago. ‘We don’t live together anymore but I do see my girls. Three or four nights a week they are with me at my place. So it’s a different life.’ Different, too, is his record label and representation. ‘I have switched to a different model. I’m now with many different local managers and different territories, no longer with a general manager based in London or Paris, which used to be the best model before the pandemic. Now I think that for certain territories – at least like France, Italy, Spain – it helps to have somebody in the country speaking the language.’

There are at least two further recordings planned, including solo, chamber music and concertos, to be made under the exclusive two-year contract he has with Naïve. His first album for the label was released last year, a programme with saxophonist Andreas Mader titled ‘Walking the Dog’. And then there’s composing – arrangements as well as original works. ‘Unlike many other pianist-composers I don’t really like to prepare my own works because I find them difficult! I certainly will record them at some point and I’ve been asked many times to publish them.’ He omits to tell me that there is an album on Animato (ACD6086, issued back in 2005) where, alongside performances of Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto and the Waldstein Sonata, we find Moog’s own Piano Sonata, Op 5. In addition, from the 2014 Klavier-Festival Ruhr (Vol 33 on Avi Music), devoted to works for the left hand alone, you’ll find Moog’s horrendously complex Etude No 4 – an left-hand arrangement of the jazz standard Cherokee, written as a tribute to Art Tatum.

Composing, clearly, is becoming increasingly interesting for Moog. ‘I’m writing for orchestra mostly now. It is a hidden activity because I’ve not finished anything to share but I really think composing goes so much further than being on stage. Interpreting works by other composers is incredible but composing gives you a whole different perspective in my opinion. It’s not really important how good or bad it is. I think the sheer fact that you are creating music on your own should be part of your activity as a musician because it gives you so much insight and you understand how incredible the works we perform actually are. It gives you much more perspective on the mastery of any of the greats – and even the lesser-known composers. Look at Marc-André Hamelin and Sir Stephen Hough, who’s just released his Piano Concerto. I have a great admiration for their courage and of course also for the quality of their music. I think they’re both deeply humble and they just do it because they feel more complete. They have the need to do it and they enjoy publishing and sharing their works, but I think it’s taken some time for both of them to really feel really comfortable with it because of the nature of their personalities. That’s my feeling. They are both humble people in spite of their extraordinary, unique gifts. They are both geniuses, no question.’

Ah yes. The art of the pianist-composer. Which brings us, rather neatly, back to where we began, to ‘Belle Époque’ and the great pianist-composers who first inspired Joseph Moog to become a pianist. 

This feature originally appeared in the SUMMER 2025 issue of International Piano – Subscribe Today

Joseph Moog’s new album ‘Belle Époque’ is available on Naïve and can be heard below: