Würfel, Václav Vilém (EN)

Würfel, Werfel, Wurfl, Wirfel, Václav, Wenzel, Wacław, Wacisław, Vilém, Wilhelm, *6 May 1790 Plaňany (near Prague), †23 April 1832 Vienna, Czech pianist, composer, organist, conductor, and teacher. He began his musical education with his father, Josef Werfel, a teacher in Plaňany (who later changed his name to Würfel) and his mother, Walburga (née Pelikánová), a pianist. In his teenage years, Würfel was a chorister in the churches of St. Henry and St. Gall in Prague and performed as a pianist and conductor; at the age of 15, he composed his first mass. He studied in Prague – music theory and composition under V.J.K. Tomášek and philosophy at university (he did not complete his philosophical studies). In 1814 he travelled to Hungary and Poland. He probably stayed in St. Petersburg before 1815 and, having gained the respect of the imperial court, returned there from time to time. In 1815 he settled in Warsaw as a music teacher. During the stay of Tsar Alexander I in Warsaw (from 12 November to 3 December 1815), Würfel introduced at his request and probably performed his Missa solemnis (later dedicated to Archduke Rudolf Habsburg), as a result of which, as he claimed, he was given a job at the conservatory. He taught there from 1815 to 1824, at first organ and piano, and then from 1821 also basso continuo and harmony. In 1815 he was a member of the Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Muzyki Religijnej i Narodowej, from 1817 he conducted concerts of the Towarzystwo Amatorskie Muzyczne. He also played the organ at the Visitationist Church. He made his first appearance as a pianist in Warsaw, probably on 14 March 1818. He also gave concerts in Riga and Vilnius in 1820. He sent correspondence to the “Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung” from 1819 onwards. In July 1823, he fell seriously ill and went abroad for a longer time, “to take care of his health”, but continued to perform, among others in Dresden (14 October 1823), Prague (January or February 1824), Leipzig (23 March 1824) and Berlin (5 and 26 May 1824). From the autumn of 1824, he prepared the premiere of his opera Rübezahl. In 1825 he settled in Vienna, where he gave his first performance on 24 April of that year. He went on to play in many renowned venues there, always gaining good reviews. From 1826 to 1830, Würfel was vice-bandleader of the Kärntnertortheater. His position at the theatre varied during these years due to changes in lessees and breaks from performances in theatre. From 1826, he was active in the music and teaching centre at St. Lawrence’s Church and in the writers’ and artists’ club (Ludlamshöhle), for which he wrote music. In September 1826, he submitted a “most humble request” to the emperor for the position of court vice-bandmaster, which was equivalent to conducting the Hofmusikkapelle; however, he did not receive this position. In the spring of 1827, however, he was appointed Kapellmeister of the Josefstadt theatre. In 1829, he helped Chopin who arrived in Vienna, especially in organising his 2 concerts at the Kärntnertortheater (11 and 18 August); according to some sources, he conducted the first of them. Chopin wrote to his family: “I do not write how Würfel is good to me, because it cannot be described” (Correspondence, Vol. 1, page 279). Würfel gave piano lessons during his entire life; he promoted the teaching method he had developed as a new one, believing that performing it ensured an equal beat in both hands. His piano students were A. Tausig, E. Wolff, J. Nowakowski, A. Sierzyński and M. Strassmayer, and organ students (in Warsaw) were F. Ostrowski, P. Wejnert, Józef Stefani and T. Nidecki. Würfel formed friendships within artistic and aristocratic circles in Vienna. He remained unmarried, lived in poverty, and died in a hospital of tuberculosis. Documents about the composer can be found in Vienna in places such as the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, the Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv, and the library of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde.

Würfel, called in Vienna “one of the greatest and finest” (“Allgemeine Theaterzeitung” 1830 No. 39), was a good pianist and improviser. He mainly played his own music, and apart from that, he also performed Beethoven’s works. His repertoire included Beethoven’s III Concerto in C minor and Trio in D major Op. 70, which he performed on 13 November 1825 in the Hall of Musikverein in Vienna. Beethoven valued Würfel’s piano performances, while European critics placed it on a par with the performing arts of J. Field, J.N. Hummel, F. Kalkbrenner. It was written about Würfel’s perfect legato – a playing that was coherent and structured, performed with precision. However, it was sometimes criticised for being too emotionally static. Würfel’s oeuvre, abundant and varied in genre, corresponds stylistically to the period at the turn of Classicism and Romanticism. Classical characteristics are mainly provided by instrumental works for large ensembles, especially piano concertos and overtures to stage works, praised in Würfel’s time for their varying instrumentation, vitality (including the overture to the Singspiel Finette Aschenbrödel…), melodic invention, and tonal mobility (the overture to the opera Der Rothmantel, which was called a masterpiece). The Romantic factor emerged in the operas, mainly through the fairy tale motifs that were characteristic for early Romantic German opera. The opera Rübezahl, depicting the adventures of the spirit of the Sudeten Mountains, Rübezahl, was written almost at the same time as L. Spohr’s opera Der Berggeist (premiered in Kassel in 1825). Librettos of both operas were based on the same fairy tale by J.K.A. Musäus. The authors of numerous reviews believed that Würfel, as a composer of operas, proved to be a skilled harmonist and a clever musician, but at the same time he was accused of “writing music with a desire to please” (“Der Sammler” 1825 No. 34). The opera Rübezahl became famous in Europe; after its premiere in Prague in 1824, it was staged in Vienna (10 March 1825), Leipzig (21 March 1825), Buda (before 1829), Pest (30 May 1829), again in Prague (in Czech language, entitled Krakonos, 7 November 1830), in Munich and Frankfurt am Main (before 1831). The music of the opera has survived only in fragments and arrangements.

Würfel achieved a good level of compositional technique in his masses and offertories (some of which, in the form of manuscripts of some parts, are preserved in Austrian and Czech collections) These are monumental forms in terms of size and cast. In their construction and texture, Würfel referred to the formula of the classical cyclic Mass. They are characterised by an attention to tuneful phrasing, but also by a conventional harmonic language that Würfel tried to balance with a variety of rhythmic structures, density of a texture, and a moderate use of polyphony in some parts. He used polyphony also in other genres, for example, in the fugato in the overture to the opera Rübezahl. Würfel’s experiences as a concert pianist resulted in a virtuoso factor dominating his piano works. According to critics, he was overly influenced by D. Steibelt. Würfel did not avoid banality in his piano waltzes and polonaises; polonaises appear also in operas (the duet of Rübezahl and Franz from the third act) and the finales of cyclical instrumental works (for instance, in the finale of the Concerto in E-flat major Op. 28 for piano and orchestra). He used wealthier resources in the variations, fantasias and rondos (e.g. Op. 20 and Op. 30), which have more extensive movements in style brillante, were preceded by pathetic introductions and accompanied by verbal explanations describing events and figures of the Napoleonic era (like in Denkwürdige Schlacht…). In Würfel’s oeuvre, an interesting item is a collection of preludes (1821), which was written before a similar cycle of preludes by F. Chopin. A textbook entitled Zbiór z różnych autorów w sposobie nauki na fortepian… published at Würfel’s own expense («Dziennik Muzyczny na Fortepiano» IV, Warsaw 1818), was soon forgotten.

Literature: Tagebuch der Prager-Bühne, “Allgemeine Theaterzeitung” 1824 No. 140 (review of an opera performance, Rübezahl); Grand rondeau brillant pour le pianoforte… Oeuv 30, “Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung” 1826 No. 48; A. Schumacher Concert des Herm W.W. W Kapellmeisters und Professors der Tonkunst, „Der Sammler” 1830 No. 48; I.F. Castelli Memoiren meines Lebens, Vol. 4, Vienna-Prague 1861, published by J. Bindtner, Munich 1914, published by J. Schondorff, Munich 1969; Grillparzers Briefe und Tagebücher…, published by C. Glossy and A. Sauer, Vol. 2, Stuttgart circa 1903; A.W. Thayer Ludwig van Beethovens Leben, published by H. Deiters, reworked by H. Riemann, Vol. 5, Leipzig 1908; Korespondencja Fryderyka Chopina, Vol. 1: 1816–1831, published by Z. Helman, Z. Skowron, H. Wróblewska-Straus, Warsaw 2009; J. Prochäzka Chopin und Böhmen, Chopin-Jahrbuch I, 1956; S.V. Klíma Jeden z pozapomenutých (Václav Vilém Würfel 1790–1832), „Opus Musicum” IX, 1977; B. Chmara-Żaczkiewicz Václav Vilém Würfel in Warsaw and in Vienna. Fakty i hipotezy, The Fryderyk Chopin Institute, Warsaw 2017.