Franz Hummel (2 January 1939 – 20 August 2022) was a German composer and pianist.
From his youth, Hummel was interested in music and, in particular, the works of
Richard Strauss,
Eugen Papst
Eugen Papst (24 December 1886 – 2 January 1956) was a German composer and music teacher.
Life
Papst was born in Oberammergau the son of the pedagogue and head teacher of the same name, Eugen Papst (1855-1923), after whom the Eugen-Papst-För ...
and
Hans Knappertsbusch
Hans Knappertsbusch (12 March 1888 – 25 October 1965) was a German conductor, best known for his performances of the music of Wagner, Bruckner and Richard Strauss.
Knappertsbusch followed the traditional route for an aspiring conductor in Ger ...
. In
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
and
Salzburg
Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872.
The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...
, he studied both composition and piano. He became a
virtuoso pianist and travelled across Europe performing, and making 60 recordings of much of the standard repertoire of classical, romantic and
contemporary
Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...
piano music before. In the 1970s, he ceased to publicly perform as a pianist, choosing instead to concentrate on composition. Since then, his operas, symphonies, ballets,
concerti
A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typi ...
and
chamber works
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...
have been performed, many times, in the most renowned concert halls and opera houses around Europe.
Hummel's musical ''
Ludwig II: Longing for Paradise'' premiered at the
Festspielhaus Neuschwanstein in
Füssen
Füssen is a town in Bavaria, Germany, in the district of Ostallgäu, situated one kilometre from the Austrian border. The town is known for violin manufacturing and as the closest transportation hub for the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau ca ...
, and was released on CD in 2000. Then, in 2001, he began to perform again as a pianist and gave a concert with the Russian violinist,
Liane Issakadse, and the
clarinetist
This article lists notable musicians who have played the clarinet.
Classical clarinetists
* Laver Bariu
* Ernest Ačkun
* Luís Afonso
* Cristiano Alves
* Michel Arrignon
* Dimitri Ashkenazy
* Kinan Azmeh
* Alexander Bader
* Carl Baerma ...
,
Giora Feidman
Giora Feidman ( he, גיורא פיידמן; born 25 March 1936) is an Argentine-born Israeli clarinetist who specializes in klezmer music.
Biography
Giora Feidman was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where his Bessarabian Jewish parents immigra ...
, at the
Carnegie Hall in New York City. Thereafter, he began work on a follow-up piece to ''Ludwig II'', about
Richard Wagner; this was planned to be premiered in 2009, in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
. He has also wrote a third musical, more popular in style, first performed in the spring of 2008.
Hummel latterly contributed, with his wife
Sandra, on a work about
Anton Bruckner. A new opera, titled "Der Richter und sein Henker" ('The Judge and His Hangman'), based on
the novel of the same name, was also penned for November 2008. This work premiered at an opera house in
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
. To promote
Linz
Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846.
In 2009, it was a European Capital ...
as the
European Capital of Culture for 2009, he was commissioned to write an opera about
Joseph Fouché who was exiled to Linz.
Death
Hummel died on 20 August 2022, at the age of 83.
Selected works
*''Gesualdo'' – an opera in two acts (1996)
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hummel, Franz
1939 births
2022 deaths
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century German male musicians
German classical pianists
German composers
Male classical pianists
People from Eichstätt (district)