Woelfl, Joseph (1773–1812)

Austrian pianist and composer. He was a pupil of Leopold Mozart and Michael Haydn at Salzburg, where he was a choirboy at the cathedral. In 1790 he went to Vienna and around 1792 made his first public appearance, at Warsaw. He soon made his name as a virtuoso, produced some stage works in Vienna, and in 1798 married the actress Therese Klemm. He went on a long tour of Bohemia and Germany, lived in Paris between 1801 and 1805, where he produced two more operas, and then settled in London.

Works Stage works operas Der Höllenberg (1795), Das schöne Milchmädchen (1797), Der Kopf ohne Mann (1798), Liebe macht kurzen Prozess (with others), L'Amour romanesque (1804), Fernanda, ou Les Maures (1805); ballets La Surprise de Diane and Alzire (on Voltaire's play).

Instrumental symphonies; Le calme and other piano concertos; chamber music; Non plus ultra and other piano sonatas, various piano works.