Ferdinand Hummel

[1] Hummel started as a child prodigy, and his father, who was a flute player in the Royal Orchestra in Berlin, took care of his son's first musical training instructing him in both the piano and the harp from the age of four (some say seven) gaining a King Wilhelm von Preussen Stipendium, so he could study with Antonio Zamara at the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.

In the years 1864 to 1867, the boy toured with his father to South and North Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Russia, where he was hailed as a great harp virtuoso.

As a composer, Hummel was very productive writing operas, chamber music, piano pieces and choral works.

Today his music is mostly forgotten, but his operas are at least of some interest since they form a German equivalent to the Italian Verismo-style of Puccini, Mascagni and Leoncavallo.

69 (The Confession) (1900), Die Gefilde der Seligen (The Field of the Holy Ones) (1917)[1] and Jenseits des Stroms (On the Other Side of the Stream) (1922).