Johann Nepomuk Hummel lived in Mozart's household for two years as a child, studying daily under the master at no charge. He went on to study with Joseph Haydn, Albrechtsberger, and Salieri, succeed Haydn at the Esterhazy court, and become one of the great pianists and teachers of his age. No one carried the direct musical DNA of Mozart's Salzburg tradition further into the 19th century.
The Story
Hummel was born in Pressburg (now Bratislava) in 1778. His father, a court musician, brought him to Vienna in 1786, when the boy was seven, and Mozart heard him play. Mozart offered to take him into the household at no charge, an extraordinary act of recognition. For two years Hummel lived with Mozart on the Grosse Schulenstrasse, sharing meals and music sheets, studying piano, composition, and the art of improvisation under the composer's direct supervision. Mozart performed with him publicly when he was nine.
The two years with Mozart were the foundation of everything. Hummel went on to tour Europe with his father from 1788, and in London he met Joseph Haydn, who added his teaching to the boy's formation. Back in Vienna in 1793, he studied counterpoint with Albrechtsberger and vocal composition with Salieri. The resulting pedigree was unique: direct training under Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and the two most important Viennese teachers of the following generation.
In 1804 Hummel was appointed Konzertmeister at the Esterhazy court, the position his teacher Joseph Haydn had held for thirty years. After Haydn's death in 1809 he became Kapellmeister. He was, literally, Haydn's successor in the institution that had shaped half of Classical music. He held the post until 1811, then pursued a performing career before settling as court Kapellmeister in Weimar in 1819, where he remained until his death in 1837.
His compositions include masses, piano concertos, chamber music, and the Trumpet Concerto in E major of 1803, written for the new keyed trumpet of Anton Weidinger. That concerto is the masterpiece of the Classical trumpet repertoire and is regularly performed at Salzburg's Mozarteum. His Klavierschule of 1828 was the standard piano method for a generation and introduced fingering innovations that remain in use. He trained a generation of pianists who carried the lineage forward. The chain from Mozart's Salzburg into the 19th century runs through Hummel's hands.
