Composer, Pianist. A significant figure of the early Romantic movement, best known for his keyboard music. Vorisek was born in Vamberk, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). He was a gifted pianist and toured the country as a child prodigy, but when he turned 16 his parents sent him to Prague to study law. Instead he spent much of his time taking lessons from Vaclav Tomasek, the most renowned Bohemian piano teacher of the day. Moving to Vienna in 1813, Vorisek continued to study keyboard with Johann Nepomuk Hummel while supporting himself as a clerk in the Imperial War Department, and his reputation as a first-rate musician gradually spread through performances at salons and occasional recitals. He met his idol, Beethoven, who encouraged him to compose, and later grew friendly with Franz Schubert. In 1818 he became a conductor of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde ("Society for the Friends of Music") and in 1823 he finally quit his bureaucrat's job when he was appointed Vienna Court Organist. Just as he was able to devote himself fully to music, and at the height of his creative powers, Vorisek was stricken with tuberculosis and died at 34. He was buried at Vienna's Wahringer Friedhof, which was demolished in the 1890s; no trace of his grave exists. Vorisek was not a prolific composer - he left 56 works, less than half of which he deemed publishable - but his finest music is imaginative and tightly constructed, with flashes of Romantic ardor. They include "12 Rhapsodies" for piano (1818), a Violin Sonata (1819), the Symphony in D (1821), a brilliant Piano Sonata (1823), and the Mass in B-Flat Major (1824). His major influence was as the probable inventor of the piano impromptu, a short, free-form piece with an air of improvisation. According to some sources a Viennese music critic used the word "impromptu" to describe a miniature by Vorisek performed in 1817, and the name stuck when he brought out a set of six in 1822. The form became quite popular during the 19th Century. Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, and Liszt all wrote famous piano impromptus.
Composer, Pianist. A significant figure of the early Romantic movement, best known for his keyboard music. Vorisek was born in Vamberk, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic). He was a gifted pianist and toured the country as a child prodigy, but when he turned 16 his parents sent him to Prague to study law. Instead he spent much of his time taking lessons from Vaclav Tomasek, the most renowned Bohemian piano teacher of the day. Moving to Vienna in 1813, Vorisek continued to study keyboard with Johann Nepomuk Hummel while supporting himself as a clerk in the Imperial War Department, and his reputation as a first-rate musician gradually spread through performances at salons and occasional recitals. He met his idol, Beethoven, who encouraged him to compose, and later grew friendly with Franz Schubert. In 1818 he became a conductor of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde ("Society for the Friends of Music") and in 1823 he finally quit his bureaucrat's job when he was appointed Vienna Court Organist. Just as he was able to devote himself fully to music, and at the height of his creative powers, Vorisek was stricken with tuberculosis and died at 34. He was buried at Vienna's Wahringer Friedhof, which was demolished in the 1890s; no trace of his grave exists. Vorisek was not a prolific composer - he left 56 works, less than half of which he deemed publishable - but his finest music is imaginative and tightly constructed, with flashes of Romantic ardor. They include "12 Rhapsodies" for piano (1818), a Violin Sonata (1819), the Symphony in D (1821), a brilliant Piano Sonata (1823), and the Mass in B-Flat Major (1824). His major influence was as the probable inventor of the piano impromptu, a short, free-form piece with an air of improvisation. According to some sources a Viennese music critic used the word "impromptu" to describe a miniature by Vorisek performed in 1817, and the name stuck when he brought out a set of six in 1822. The form became quite popular during the 19th Century. Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, and Liszt all wrote famous piano impromptus.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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