Page:Pratt - The history of music (1907).djvu/401



Joseph Wölfl (d. 1812) may be inserted here. In one sense he represents the Viennese group, since he was born at Salzburg in 1772, was taught there by Leopold Mozart and Michael Haydn, appearing as a violinist at 7 (1779), and in 1790 and 1795-8 was at Vienna. But his developed style connects him with the other. Besides becoming a pianist able to compete with Beethoven and to win his high regard, from 1795 he took up light opera and chamber music. In 1798 he began a grand tour to Prague, Leipsic, Hamburg, Berlin and Paris, where he lived 1801-5, producing two operas and making a sensation as a player. From 1805 he was in London, recognized as a keyboard artist of the first rank. His works varied greatly in quality. He was thoroughly equipped technically and had power as contrapuntist and improvisator. With his enormous hands he  could strike an octave and a sixth, so that he could execute passages for others impossible. He wrote 7 concertos, nearly 40 sonatas, many preludes and shorter pieces, some trivial, about 50 études, 2 symphonies and a great quantity of chamber music. Among his concertos, the Militaire and The Calm (1806), and among his sonatas the Non plus ultra and Le diable à quatre were specially successful. To the Non plus ultra Dussek's Le retour à Paris was set forth by the publishers as an answer, Plus ultra. His 5 or more operas included Der  Höllenberg (1795), Der Kopf ohne Mann (1798) and L'amour romanesque (1804).

Prince Louis Ferdinand (d. 1806), born in 1772, the most gifted of the Prussian royal family, pursued music assiduously along with his military life His playing aroused Beethoven's enthusiasm. Late in his short life he was intimate with Dussek and  the young Spohr. His few works were mostly for chamber combinations—the quartet for piano and strings, op. 6, being considered the best. His promising career was cut off at the battle against Napoleon at Saalfeld.

Less significant names are Johann Wilhelm Hässler (d. 1822), born at Erfurt and trained there by his uncle, Kittel, in the Bach traditions, who was a fine organist and wonderfully facile at the clavier, active at Erfurt from 1780, in 1790 appeared at London, and from 1792 settled in Russia, first at St. Petersburg in court  service, later at Moscow as a teacher, with a number of works (from 1776), largely for the harpsichord; Friedrich Heinrich Himmel (d. 1814), a protégé of King Friedrich Wilhelm and a pupil of Naumann, who wrote operas for different places (from  1792), toured as a popular pianist, and left a large amount of   excellent music, including much for the church and many songs; and Franz Lauska (d. 1825), a pupil of Albrechtsberger, who was first engaged at Munich, then at Copenhagen and from 1798 at Berlin, being recognized as a fine virtuoso and teacher, with about 15 polished sonatas (from 1795) and other works.

Associated with Paris more or less closely were the following:—

Nikolaus Joseph Hüllmandel (d. 1823), born at Strassburg and a pupil of Emanuel Bach at Hamburg, in 1771 appeared as a player at London and, after a sojourn in Italy, in 1776 settled at Paris as a teacher, returning to London in 1790. He knew how to make piano music popular in high society, and wrote a number of sonatas (from 1780).

Louis Adam (d. 1848), an Alsatian, in 1775 came to Paris as a teacher and composer, and in 1797 became professor in the Conservatoire, remaining