Hummel, Johann Nepomuk

Hummel, Johann Nepomuk (yō`hän nā`pōmk hm`əl), 1778–1837, Hungarian-born pianist and composer. In piano technique and improvisatory ability Hummel was thought to rival Beethoven. His compositions—124 opus numbers, many written for piano and chamber groups—represent a link between the classical and romantic styles.

---

Hummel, Johann Nepomuk

(born Nov. 14, 1778, Pozsony, Hung.—died Oct. 17, 1837, Weimar, Thuringia) Austrian composer, pianist, and conductor. Hummel was a piano prodigy. Moving at age eight to Vienna, where his father was a conductor, he studied for two years with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. After five years of touring, he returned for further study and gave up public performance. He replaced Joseph Haydn as music director at the Esterházy palace but actually made his living teaching and composing for the theatre. In 1814 he recommenced performing with huge success, and he died wealthy. He composed a number of concertos and much chamber music.

---

Hummel, Johann Nepomuk 

Born Nov. 14, 1778, in Pressburg (Bratislava); died Oct. 17, 1837, in Weimar. Austrian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.

Hummel studied with W. A. Mozart and A. Salieri in Vienna. From 1804 to 1811 he was kapellmeister for Prince Esterhazy in Eisenstadt; from 1816 to 1819 he was court kapellmeister in Stuttgart, a post that he held later in Weimar. A brilliant piano virtuoso, Hummel gave concerts in many countries, including Russia, where he appeared in 1822. He was a great teacher. (His pupils included pianists J. Hiller, C. Czerny, and A. Henselt.) He wrote operas, ballets, masses, piano pieces, and chamber music. Some of his works for piano (etudes, concerti, and separate pieces) still retain their pedagogical importance.