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THE CLASSICAL COMPOSER AND KEYBOARDIST INFLUENCED A WHOLE GENERATION OF YOUNGER ARTISTS
JOHANN NEPOMUK HUMMEL is best known as a Classical composer, the last great representative of the style of Haydn, Mozart, and early Beethoven. Indeed, Hummel's credentials as a Classicist are impeccable. Born in 1778, he studied with Mozart between 1786 and 1788 and was regarded throughout Europe as his most famous pupil, a label Hummel wore with pride until his death in 1837. The English journal Harmonicon even dubbed him "the modern Mozart of Germany" in 1825.
Hummel's connections to Haydn and Beethoven were equally strong: he was Haydn's protégé and successor at Esterháza, and Beethoven's close friend and chief competitor in Vienna.
There is another Hummel, however, one far less well known or appreciated: Johann Nepomuk Hummel, the Romantic. As the greatest virtuoso pianist of his era, and one of its most popular composers, he played an important role in the lives and musical development of those artists who symbolize what we now call the Romantic style. Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, and particularly Chopin were unabashed admirers of Hummel and freely acknowledged their debt to this brilliant musician and fascinating figure in the history of music. This article will offer a brief glimpse into Hummel's impact on these four geniuses.
Franz Schubert
Hummel and Schubert met only once, at a dinner in Vienna in 1827. Hummel had rushed to the Austrian capital to be at the side of the dying Beethoven, and he made four visits to his old friend's deathbed. The meeting with Schubert was decidedly more upbeat, but equally memorable.
Schubert must have been delighted to finally have personal contact with the composer of music he had known and admired for more than a decade. After all, Hummel had lived in Vienna for many years and still enjoyed a huge popularity there as a composer and pianist. One of the works that Schubert knew quite well was Hummel's Septet in D minor, op. 74, his most popular chamber music composition. Schubert, in fact, used the quintet version of this work as the model for his famous Trout Quintet. The solo piano music that Schubert composed between 1816 and his death in 1828 also reveals the strong influence of Hummel's...