WOELFL, Joseph (1772-1812), pianist and composer, was born in 1772 at Salzburg, where he studied music under Leopold Mozart and Michael Haydn. After a short residence at Warsaw he produced his first opera, Der HoUenber<j, with some success at Vienna, where it was soon followed by Das schone Milchmädchen and some other dramatic pieces. These, however, have been long forgotten, and his fame now rests upon his compositions for the pianoforte, and the skill with which he is said to have met their formidable demands upon his power as an executant. The perfection of his technique was immeasurably enhanced by the enormous stretch of his fingers; and to the wide grasp of the key-board this placed at his command he owed a facility of execution which he turned to excellent account, especially in his extempore performances. So remarkable were these that even the youthful Beethoven did not disdain to play in company with him at the house of Count Wetzlar, and in memory of this exhibition of good-humoured rivalry he dedicated to Beethoven his Three Sonatas, Op. 6. Quitting Vienna in 1798 Woelfl exhibited his skill in most of the great European capitals, and, after spending some years in Paris, made his first appearance in London, May 27, 1805. Here he enjoyed a long term of popularity, crowned about 1808 by the publication of his Sonata, Op. 41, containing some variations on “Life let us cherish.” This, on account of its technical difficulty, he entitled Non Plus Ultra ; and, in reply to the challenge, Dussek’s London publishers reprinted a sonata by that composer, originally called Le Retour à Paris, with the title Plus Ultra, and an ironical dedication to Non Plus Ultra. Woelfl died in Great Marylebone Street, London, May 21, 1812. Some stories once current concerning his ...