Johann Nepomuk Hummel is a key figure of the transition period between Viennese classicism and Romanticism: a pupil of Mozart, a contemporary of Beethoven, and a model for the composers of the next generation, especially Chopin. He was not only a composer but also one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of that time, who gave enormously successful concerts all over Europe, and wrote one of the most important piano tutors of the first half of the 19th century (Ausführlich theoretisch-practische Anweisung zum Pianoforte Spiel). The majority of the pieces that feature in this collection are from that piano tutor.