On December 26, 1846, Felix Mendelssohn signed a recommendation for Richard Wüerst in Leipzig. He praised Richard Wüerst’s compositions and diligence and commented on his progress as a violinist. The surviving evidence available here is an antiquarian catalogue’s transcription of the recommendation, not the signed document itself. It shows that Felix Mendelssohn knew Richard Wüerst’s work and supported him professionally; it does not give the dates or contents of their lessons.
The teachers of Johann Hummel
In an autobiographical letter dated May 22, 1826, Johann Hummel said that his father began his musical training and that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart taught him between roughly his seventh and ninth years. Johann Hummel called those lessons foundational to his piano playing, then said he developed further on his own. He gave no lesson schedule or list of works assigned by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Surviving letters by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart do not independently confirm Johann Hummel’s residence and study in his household.
Johann Hummel also said that he studied counterpoint—the practice of combining independent musical lines—with Johann Albrechtsberger after returning to Vienna. Antonio Salieri taught him vocal composition, especially its aesthetic and philosophical aspects. Johann Hummel named his fugues, Op. 7, and variations, Op. 8, among his early works, but did not say that either came from Antonio Salieri’s lessons.
Joseph Haydn’s connection to Johann Hummel has two different kinds of evidence. Biographical and pedagogical accounts say Joseph Haydn taught him organ, without supplying a lesson book or exercise that shows what they covered. In his own letter, Johann Hummel said that Joseph Haydn recommended him for professional appointments, including a position at the Esterházy establishment. The letter documents that sponsorship more directly than it documents organ teaching.
Advice to Felix Mendelssohn
Johann Hummel and Felix Mendelssohn met in Berlin in 1821 and again during Felix Mendelssohn’s November stay in Weimar. A dissertation reports that Felix Mendelssohn played for Johann Hummel in Weimar and received advice about his posture. It identifies a November 14, 1821 letter from Felix Mendelssohn to his family, held at the New York Public Library, as evidence that he took the advice seriously. The letter’s text was not available in the research consulted, so the reported advice cannot be expanded into a course of regular lessons.
Their connection can also be traced through particular music. Hummel’s A-minor piano concerto, Op. 85, was heard in Felix Mendelssohn’s circle and has been compared with his later G-minor concerto, Op. 25. The comparison proposes an influence; it is not a statement by Felix Mendelssohn about how he wrote his concerto. In January 1846, a participant in his Leipzig teaching recalled Hummel’s D-minor Septet, Op. 74, as the first piano piece chosen for a class. Felix Mendelssohn stopped pupils over the sound of its opening chord and demonstrated what he wanted. That account shows him teaching Johann Hummel’s music, not how he had learned to play it.
From Richard Wüerst to Heinrich Hofmann
Robert Eitner’s biographical account says Richard Wüerst studied composition with Felix Mendelssohn and violin with Ferdinand David in Leipzig. An older music history also describes personal tuition from Felix Mendelssohn. Those accounts support the teaching relationship alongside the 1846 recommendation, though none identifies a composition that Felix Mendelssohn corrected.
Richard Wüerst later taught composition at Theodor Kullak’s Berlin conservatory. Robert Eitner names Heinrich Hofmann among his pupils, and a historical dictionary names both Richard Wüerst and Siegfried Dehn as Heinrich Hofmann’s composition teachers. Robert Eitner dates Richard Wüerst’s succession to Siegfried Dehn’s teaching post to 1858. Heinrich Hofmann’s often-cited 1857 entry into the academy therefore dates his entry into the institution, not the start of lessons with Richard Wüerst.
A search of the Leipzig conservatory’s CARLA archive portal and digitized registration-register listing did not locate an individually accessible entry for Richard Wüerst or a composition marked up by Felix Mendelssohn. Those missing records leave the dates of their lessons—and any corrections Felix Mendelssohn made to Richard Wüerst’s music—unfixed.
