The reputation of Johann Nepomuk Hummel – child prodigy, student of Mozart, successor of Haydn and Beethoven’s rival, widely-travelled piano virtuoso, composer, conductor, influential teacher and ingenious businessman – is once more on the rise. His variations, fantasies and potpourris on operas, including his own, were influential on Liszt and showcase his extraordinary abilities as both performer and composer. Winner of the Città di Stresa International Piano Competition, Madoka Inui has collaborated in literary-musical events with several distinguished authors and made a number of recordings for Naxos as accompanist in its Viennese series devoted to the art of solo instruments.