Alexander Dreyschock

By the age of twenty, Dreyschock undertook his first professional tour in December 1838, performing in various northern and central towns in Germany.

Subsequent tours saw him visiting Russia (1840–42), Paris (spring 1843), London, the Netherlands, Austria and Hungary (1846), as well as Denmark and Sweden in 1849.

Dreyschock's left hand was renowned, and his most famous technical stunt was to play the left-hand arpeggios of Chopin's Revolutionary Étude in octaves.

[1] In 1862, Dreyschock became a staff member at the newly founded St. Petersburg Conservatory at Anton Rubinstein's invitation.

He was appointed Court Pianist to the Tsar as well as Director of the Imperial School of Music for the Operatic Stage.

Alexander Dreyschock was famous for playing the left-hand arpeggios of Chopin's Revolutionary Étude in octaves, at every concert.