Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778 – 1837): Piano Sonata in F Minor, op 20
A talented, dynamic colossus of a man, Johann Nepomuk Hummel was a key musical figure across the first three decades of the nineteenth century. Alongside Beethoven, he served as the other all-important link between Mozart and the early Romantics. He excelled at writing music for his instrument (he was perhaps the most accomplished piano virtuoso of his generation) as well as concerti, sacred works, ballets and a rich body of chamber music (though interestingly, no symphonies). He was personally taught by Mozart but lived into the era of Schubert, Chopin and Schumann, all of whom revered him and were clearly influenced by him. Schubert would dedicate his late, great trio of piano sonatas to Hummel.
Unlike some of his famous contemporaries, Hummel did not hail from particularly humble origins. Born in Pressburg (then a part of Hungary, now Slovakia) to Austrian parents, his father was the director of the Imperial School of Military Music in Vienna, while his mother had previously been married to a wigmaker (an in-demand profession during the late eighteenth century one would presume).
The young Johann’s musical gift so impressed everyone that by the age of eight he was invited to become one of Mozart’s pupils for free and even to lodge with the great man in Vienna for two years despite the latter’s often precarious freelance career. Hummel later toured Europe as a youthful prodigy before moving to London with his father where he met Joseph Haydn, the latter paying the young musician the highest compliment by writing him a piano sonata*.
*This 1791 composition, in A Flat Major, was apparently performed by Hummel in the Hanover Square Rooms, but appears to have been subsequently lost.
Hummel eventually returned to Vienna in 1795, receiving further tuition from Haydn as well as Antonio Salieri. He met the young Beethoven and the two would form a friendship which would endure (with a few speed-bumps along the way) to the end of Beethoven’s life.
His connection with Haydn allowed him to take over the latter’s duties at the wealthy estate of Prince Esterházy in 1804 as Konzertmeister (Haydn, though now sick, remained officially as Kapellmeister). But Hummel’s output wasn’t quite as well received as Haydn’s had been, even as he tried to write them the sacred music they demanded, including a Missa Solemnis (many years before Beethoven’s).
He was eventually fired by the estate in 1811, not that it appeared to have any great adverse effect on his career. He lived off both his compositions and piano-playing for a few years. He also found himself a wife, a talented singer, with whom he toured Europe giving concerts.
As middle age approached, he sought more stable employment once more, being appointed Kapellmeister firstly at Stuttgart from 1818 to 1821 and then at Weimar (where he would spend the rest of his life) from 1819 to 1837. Hummel was largely responsible for attracting fellow composers to Weimar and helping to turn it into a major centre for European music. His playing also continued to attract only the highest praise, with pianist Karl Friedrich Zelter (a one time teacher of Felix Mendelssohn), declaring that Hummel “represents a summation of the contemporary art of playing the piano, in which he combines integrity and originality with intelligence and skill. At times one doesn’t even notice fingers or strings, but only hears music, everything comes out so sure and easily, regardless of the difficulties.”
Despite his career success, Hummel was anything but a glamorous seeming man. “When [Hummel] stops playing, there stands a gnome,” wrote Hummel’s great friend (and admirer), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Ferdinand Hiller, a one-time pupil, commented that “both halves of [Hummel’s] face were not in the proper relationship to each other.” Another of Hummel’s contemporaries, Carl Czerny, unflatteringly called him a “very striking man, with an unpleasant, common-looking face that constantly twitched. He wore utterly tasteless clothing and valuable diamond rings on almost all his fingers.” Hummel was well aware of his rather unprepossessing appearance and at times could put it to mischievous use. Having once turned up unannounced (and incognito) on the doorstep of fellow composer John Field, in St Petersburg, the much more patrician Field assumed Hummel to be a untrained enthusiast and invited him to play something on his piano. When Hummel then launched into a brilliant extemporization on one of Field’s own compositions, the latter jumped to his feet and exclaimed, “you can’t fool me! You are Hummel. No other man in the world can improvise like that!” Hummel and Field became good friends afterwards.
Although he died wealthy and widely-admired, a contented man in most respects, Hummel was forgotten with surprising speed by the post 1840 generation onwards, and more than a century of neglect would ensue. Thankfully some amends have been made in recent decades – recordings of his music have multiplied in that time, and we have had a chance to re-acquaint ourselves with this highly gifted man and musician.
This Piano Sonata in F Minor dates from 1807 and a still comparatively early period in Hummel’s music. Considering he was one of Europe’s foremost virtuoso pianists, it is surprising how much the sonata eschews virtuosic writing – or at least until the final movement. The first movement in particular is subdued, introverted and masterly. It unfolds its musical arguments through a complex range of moods and textures. Mostly it is soft and transparent, without a single wasted-sounding note.
The second (slow) movement, an adagio maestoso (slow and stately) is built upon the rising three notes heard at the outside, a motif which is shared freely across the two hands against an increasingly polyphonic accompaniment. The third movement, a whirlwind of fast triplet figures, finally allows us a glimpse of the public Hummel, the exciting virtuoso. The movement also carries the odd allusion to two finales from Beethoven’s early piano sonatas, his F Minor, op 2 no 1 and the “Pathetique” in C Minor, op 13.
Although Hummel lived through much of the same era as Beethoven and walked down many of the same roads, yet he is different. Musical ideologues have found him almost impossible to label – despite being progressive, despite writing many first-rate compositions, he was not an artist who ever really believed in the struggle. But his output, like Beethoven’s, does offer much the same fascinating journey from firm Classical roots towards a new and more expressive Romantic sensibility.
Suggestions for further listening
Although he wrote in a wide variety of forms, the piano often drove Hummel’s compositional output. He wrote six mature piano sonatas in all, his later essays in the form growing ever bolder and more expansive. While still a young man he also wrote this highly original Fantasie in E Flat Major op 18 (1805).
Hummel was a prolific composer of chamber music – often combining the piano with solo string instruments, such as this Quintet in E Flat Minor from 1802.
He was also fond of writing for guitar, usually in combination with other instruments.
You can find more about Hummel, including his large scale instrumental works and concertos, in 1819: A Regular Genius.