Franz Hummel

Who is Franz Hummel?

Franz Hummel is a German composer and pianist.

From his youth, Hummel was interested in music and, in particular, the works of Richard Strauss, Eugen Papst and Hans Knappertsbusch. In Munich and Salzburg 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 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 and chamber works have been performed, many times, in even the most renowned concert halls and opera houses of Europe.

His musical "Ludwig II. - Sehnsucht nach dem Paradies" was premiered at the Festspielhaus Neuschwanstein in Füssen, and 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 world-famous clarinetist Giora Feidman at Carnegie Hall in New York. After this he began work on a follow-up piece to "Ludwig II." about Richard Wagner; this was planned to be premiered in 2009 in Dresden.