Background
Ascher was born in Groningen, the son of the chazzan of the city, who went on to become a cantor in London.
Ascher was born in Groningen, the son of the chazzan of the city, who went on to become a cantor in London.
He started his musical studies in London and continued them at the Leipzig Conservatory with Ignaz Moscheles as his teacher, but did not graduate.
His pianistic gifts were recognized by the Empress Eugénie of France, who asked him to become her court pianist in 1849. In 1865, Ascher moved back to London, while in Paris he was succeeded as court pianist by Émile Waldteufel. He died in London from the result of what some 19th-century sources call "a dissolute life".
Brown (1886) regarded him as a "composer who, had he been more careful in his worldly relations, might have proved one of the greatest among recent musicians." The numerous pieces which he has produced for the Pf. are in general brilliant and effective in character.
While several of them show tokens of real genius inspiration.".