Vaclav Jan Tomásek

Profoundly affected at age 16 with a performance of Mozart’s then-new Don Giovanni, Vaclav Tomásek would carry Mozart’s aesthetics into nineteenth century Prague music, even though with a somewhat updated glitter comparable to that of Hummel. Unwanted fat, sarcastic, and arrogant, Tomásek had not been popular, but he was the leading amount in Prague’s musical lifestyle, well known not merely for his piano parts and songs also for his teaching (Vorísek and Hanslick had been among his more lucrative learners), his reportage, and his musical salons. Tomásek finished up surviving in a roomy, fashionable home in Prague, but he began as the impoverished kid of the unsuccessful provincial material merchant. He do manage to research violin and performing in college as a kid. He attended supplementary college in Prague, and, from 1794 to 1799, examined various nonmusical topics (math, philosophy, background) at Charles School. He trained himself the basics of music by reading treatises in his free time; during his school period he started writing small dances and music and playing piano at upper-middle-class salons, where he recruited music learners. They are the passions he pursued upon departing the school, studying more officially with Vogler and Forkel, under whose impact he added Bach to Mozart in his pantheon of all respected composers. The achievement of his placing of G.A. Bürger’s ballad “Lenore” arrived him a posture as composer and family members music teacher to Count number Georg Buquoy in 1806. His responsibilities had been none too challenging, as well as for another 18 years he’d create and travel broadly, between home music tasks. Certainly, they were Tomásek’s most effective years like a composer. This era finished around 1824, when Tomásek remaining the count’s services to marry Wilhelmina Ebert and begin a music college. The marriage dropped apart within 2 yrs, although it didn’t formally end. The institution did well, in the meantime, but Tomásek became much less effective and more reclusive. He didn’t go back to his older self until after his wife passed away in 1836. Around that point his Monday night salon concerts became a fixture of Prague’s musical existence. He performed his personal music, supervised conversations, and welcomed such site visitors as Berlioz, Paganini, and Wagner. Tomásek also became friendly with people wanting to develop a stress of Czech nationalism in the neighborhood music, although he himself hardly ever really adopted their advice. Rather, he spent his last years carrying on to instruct and acting like a travel article writer for local magazines.