Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Music for Flute and Piano, Vol. 3

Johann Nepomuk Hummel was born in Pressburg (now Bratislava, Slovakia), the son of Johannes Hummel, a violinist at the court of Count Grassalkovich who also maintained a palace in Vienna./one.numerator Johannes decided to move to Vienna soon after he discovered that his son was a prodigy on both piano and violin, in order to pursue better educational opportunities for the young virtuoso, and to further his own career. He aimed high, asking no less than Mozart, who agreed to serve as Hummel’s teacher for two years and even allowed him to live with his family. Mozart’s influence would remain so strong on Hummel and his compositional style that even 30 years later, in the 1820s, the press was calling him “the Modern Mozart of Germany.” After two years of instruction with Mozart, and probably at the recommendation of his teacher, Hummel and his father Johannes embarked on a five-year concert debut tour that would take them throughout Europe, Scandinavia and the British Isles. With his reputation established, Hummel returned to Vienna in 1793, studied with Haydn and became Beethoven’s major competitor at the keyboard.

The two artists would have a volatile relationship during the next three decades, but as we will see below, they parted at Beethoven’s death bed in 1827 as friends and colleagues. Haydn, the third member of the first “Viennese School”, played a strong role in Hummel’s life and career. He studied with “Papa” Haydn after the return to Vienna in 1793 and succeeded his teacher at the Esterházy court (1804-1811), as Concertmaster, on Haydn’s recommendation. Hummel then returned to Vienna to reestablish himself as one of the city’s leading free-lance pianists and piano teachers, and in 1816 accepted the position of Kapellmeister at the Stuttgart Court, where he stayed for only two unhappy years.

In 1819 Hummel therefore eagerly accepted an invitation to serve as Kapellmeister for the enlightened court of Weimar, where he would remain, happy and productive, until his death in 1837. During his lifetime, Hummel was considered by most of his contemporaries to be the greatest piano virtuoso of Europe (Carl Friedrich Zelter once dubbed him “the first Liszt”), and one of the most popular composers and teachers of the era. T rained in the classical style of Haydn and Mozart, he became an influence on and a mentor to the next generation of composer-pianists of the Romantic era, such as Schubert, Schumann, Liszt and particularly Chopin. Hummel’s A-major piano concerto also became the concerto-of-choice for aspiring pianists to play, not only Liszt and Schumann, but also Franck, Brahms, Clara Schumann, Grieg and many others.

H/u.sc/m.sc/m.sc/e.sc/l.sc /a.sc/n.sc/d.sc C/o.sc/p.sc/y.sc/r.sc/i.sc/g.sc/h.sc/t.sc P/r.sc/o.sc/t.sc/e.sc/c.sc/t.sc/i.sc/o.sc/n.sc Hummel also became a leading proponent for the establishment of copyright protection for himself and his fellow composers, who were often at the mercy of dishonest and unscrupulous music publishers who felt no compunction in printing and selling compositions without the composers’ approval, and certainly without paying them for the rights and privileges to do so. Very often, they would publish works under the composer’s name, especially if they were famous and would therefore generate more sales, even though the composer never wrote the piece, or at the very least, composed it for a different instrumental combination. Hummel complained bitterly and often about those unethical publishers who copied publications of his music originally brought out by a reputable firm like Peters or Haslinger, and sold them as their own. Not only were such “pirate” publications illegal, but they were often sloppy and contained numerous errors.

This was infuriating to a composer as careful and conscientious as Hummel, who sometimes drove his publishers and copyists to distraction with his demands for error-free editions. Moreover, every copy of a pirated edition meant one less sale for the legal publisher. This hit Hummel in one of his most vulnerable areas, his pocketbook. For example, after a tour to the Netherlands, Hummel was so annoyed by the Dutch pirate editions he discovered that he wrote to Peters on 29 November 1823 complaining that he could find “no music from one honest German publisher, but rather nothing but Paris scrawls or aftermarket engravings, and mostly from “the two rotten note thieves of Mainz and Bonn” (i.e., Schott and Simrock).

Finally, Hummel had had enough with the thefts of his artistic creations and decided to do something about it. He submitted petitions signed by the leading composers of Europe to the Deutscher Bund, the heads of Germany’s numerous states and principalities, and to just about any other organization or individual that might be of use. One of the signatories of the petition, however, was probably the most important, that of Beethoven, who signed it on his deathbed at Hummel’s personal request. Hummel’s decision to impose on Beethoven during his final days was more than justified, since without Beethoven’s written support, it is doubtful that Hummel’s plan would have succeeded.

The negotiations would go on for many years after that auspicious moment and involved complicated political and legal issues that took a considerable amount of time to resolve. Nevertheless, Hummel’s goals were ultimately realized: a German Composer’s Union that would protect their copyrights was indeed created, although its formal establishment did not come until after his death. T oday almost every country has one or more composer’s unions. In America, for example, it is ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) and BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.); in Germany, the DKV (Deutscher Komponist Verband); and in Spain, the SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores) and AMCC (Asociación Madrileña de Compositores).

T /h.sc/e.sc M/u.sc/s.sc/i.sc/c.sc Although none of the works on this CD were originally composed by Hummel for flute and piano, only two are true victims of “pirate” editions and “note thieves:” opp. 108 and 122. The other four have strong connections to Hummel’s favorite and trusted publishers in Vienna and London, and it is safe to assume that even though Hummel did not make the flute arrangements himself, he probably would have supervised or approved the work of the anonymous arranger. The Introduction and Air with Variations for Flute and Piano, op. 102 began life as Hummel’s Nocturne in F for piano four-hands with two horns ad. lib., op. 99, composed in 1822 and published in 1824; it was then arranged that year as Variations pour l’Hautbois avec Orchestra, op. 102. The Air a la Tyrolienne, op. 118 was published in 1829 as Aria a la Tirolienne avec Variations (accompanied by orchestra), and was dedicated to and “sung for the first time” by the noted diva of the time, Madame Malibran-Garcia.

The Amusement, op. 108, was originally composed for violin and piano, and dedicated to “Madame son Altesse Royale Duchesse de Berry” in 1825/1826. Hummel wrote to Peters in 1825: “I have also written in Paris a Sonatina with violin accompaniment for the Duchess of Berry; it is, understandably, quite easy.” The Variations Brillantes, Das Fest Der Handwerker, op. 115 was written for piano and orchestra in 1830 and dedicated to the pianist Eugenie Beer. Its original title was Grosse VARIATIONEN in B dur. uber ein Thema aus dem Berliner Local-Singspiel: “Das Fest der Handwerker.” Hummel composed the music of the Rondo de Société for Piano and Flute, op. 117 as a work for piano and orchestra in 1829, and was titled Gesellschafts Rondo, op. 117. The Rondo villageois, op. 122, was composed by Hummel as a work for solo piano in 1831.

Mark Kroll © 2026 Brookline, MA 1 August 2026 /one.numerator For a detailed study of Hummel’s life and works, see M/a.sc/r.sc/k.sc K/r.sc/o.sc/l.sc/l.sc, Johann Nepomuk Hummel: A Musician and his World (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2007, rev. second edition Bratislava: Hudobné Centrum, 2022); and the article J/o.sc/e.sc/l.sc S/a.sc/c.sc/h.sc/s.sc /a.sc/n.sc/d.sc M/a.sc/r.sc/k.sc K/r.sc/o.sc/l.sc/l.sc, Hummel, Johann Nepomuk, Grove Music Online.