Wilhelm Würfel

Who was Wilhelm Würfel?

Wilhelm Würfel, aka Wenzel Würfel was a Czech composer, pianist and conductor.

He was born in 1790 in Plaňany near Kolín in central Bohemia. His father was a schoolteacher. He studied piano with his mother. In 1807 he went to Prague where he studied with Václav Jan Tomášek. In 1815 he went to Warsaw where he was appointed a professor at the Warsaw Conservatory. He gave piano performances in Poland, Bohemia, Germany and Russia. In 1824 he returned to Prague and conducted his opera Rübezahl. From 1826 he stayed as a conductor in Vienna. He died in Vienna, aged 41. Works: Operas Rübezahl and Der Rothmantel Piano works: Piano Concerto op. 28 Rondeau Brillant op. 20, op. 24, op. 25,and op. 30 Variations op. 16, op. 17, op. 19,and op. 29 Polonoises op. 21, op. 27

His most famous pupil was the Polish romantic composer Frédéric Chopin, who studied with him at the Warsaw High School of Music between 1823-26.

According to Jonathan Bellman in his book Chopin's Polish Ballade, one of Wurfel's programmatic pieces that Chopin must have known is the Grande fantaisie lugubre au souvenir des trois héros Prince Joseph Poniatowski, Kościuszko, et Dąbrowski, composé et dediée à la nation polonaise. The composition exemplifies the flourishing Polish genre of fantasias that used narrative elements and quotations to express Polish nationalism. Wurfel's section headings are as follows: