Commentary
The Thuringian Johann Julius Hummel (1728–1798), who settled in Amsterdam around 1748, became the most important music publisher and dealer in that city in the second half of the eighteenth century. His younger brother Burchard (1731–1797), the “B. Hummel” of the advertisement transcribed above, ran a music shop of his own in The Hague. Burchard is the “Hummel” mentioned in Leopold Mozart’s travel notes from The Hague (Briefe, i:214; Schurig 1920, 42–43), and it was J. J. Hummel’s shop on the Vijgendam in Amsterdam that sold tickets for the concerts given by the Mozart children in that city in Jan and Feb 1766 (Dokumente, 50–51). J. J. Hummel published Wolfgang’s 8 Variations in G Major for solo keyboard on the Dutch song “Laat ons juichen, Batavieren!” by Christian Ernst Graf (or “Graaf,” 1723–1804), K. 24, and B. Hummel published Wolfgang’s 7 Variations in D Major for solo keyboard on the song “Willem van Nassau,” K. 25; both pieces were written in honor of the installation of William V, Prince of Orange (1748–1806) as Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic on his eighteenth birthday, 8 Mar 1766. J. J. Hummel also published Wolfgang’s Six Sonatas for Keyboard with Accompaniment of Violin, K. 26–31, dedicated to William’s older sister Carolina, Princess of Nassau-Weilburg, the last of William’s four regents during his minority (his father had died in 1751, when William was only three).
At the time of this advertisement in the Oprechte Haerlemse Courant on 28 Feb 1765, the Mozarts were still in London; they returned to the continent on 1 Aug of that year, arriving in the Dutch Republic in early Sep. The sonatas mentioned in the advertisement are K. 8 and 9 (Wolfgang’s op. 2), first published in Paris in 1764 (see our entry for 9 Apr 1764). Leopold retained the plates for this edition and transferred them to the London publisher Bremner, who issued copies of op. 2 printed from the same plates, but under his own imprint (see the facsimile of Bremner’s title page in Haberkamp 1986, ii:7). J. J. Hummel is not known to have published an independent edition of op. 2, so he must have been selling copies printed from the original plates; given that he apparently had an ongoing connection with Bremner and sold other Bremner editions (see below), it seems most likely that he was selling copies from Bremner’s printing of Wolfgang’s op. 2.
The other composers and works mentioned in this advertisement are:
Friedrich Schwindl (also “Schwindel,” 1737–1786)
6 Symphonies, op. 2 (Burchard Hummel, 1764; RISM A/I, SS 2549a; Johansson 1972, ii:21–22)
Carl Friedrich Abel (1723–1787)
Six Trios for Keyboard with Violin or Flute, op. 5 (J. J. Hummel, 1765; not in RISM; Johansson 1972, ii:23)
Pietro Nardini (1722–1793)
Six Violin Concertos, op. 1 (J. J. Hummel, 1765 [pdf]; RISM A/I, N 40; Johansson 1972, ii:22)
Arias from
• Cleonice (probably the version given in London in 1763 with music by Felice Giardini and Ferdinando Bertoni, probably in the edition for voice and keyboard by Bremner, RISM B/II)
• Leucippo (likewise probably in Bremner’s edition, RISM A/I, H 2256)
• Siroe (probably the version given in London in 1763 with music by Giardini, likewise probably in Bremner’s edition, RISM A/I, G 1865)
(None of the aria editions are mentioned in Johansson 1972.)
The catalog mentioned in the advertisement may be the one found with an exemplar of Hummel’s edition of C. A. Campioni’s Six sonates a deux violons & violoncello obligato, op. 7 (S-Skma, W2-R; RISM A/I, C 662), which probably dates from early 1765 (see Johansson 1972, i:22–23; Johansson does not include a facsimile of this catalog in her vol. 2).
Regarding the earlier article in the Oprechte Haerlemse Courant referred to at the end of the advertisement, see our entry for 16 Feb 1765.
The same page of the Oprechte Haerlemse Courant that includes the advertisement transcribed above also contains the earliest known announcement of the Dutch translation of Leopold Mozart’s Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (as Grondig onderwys in het behandelen der viool), published by Johannes Enschedé in Haarlem (see document 1 in our entry on that translation).