Profoundly affected at age 16 by a performance of Mozart's then-new Don Giovanni, Vaclav Tomásek would carry Mozart's aesthetics into nineteenth century Prague music, though with a slightly updated glitter akin to that of Hummel. Fat, sarcastic, and arrogant, Tomásek was not well liked, but he was the leading figure in Prague's musical life, well known not only for his piano pieces and songs but also for his teaching (Vorísek and Hanslick were among his more successful students), his reportage, and his musical salons. Tomásek ended up living in a spacious, fashionable house in Prague, but he started out as the impoverished son of an unsuccessful provincial cloth merchant. He did manage to study violin and singing in school as a child. He attended secondary school in Prague, and, from 1794 to 1799, studied various non-musical subjects (math, philosophy, history) at Charles University. He taught himself the fundamentals of music by reading treatises in his spare time; during his university period he began writing little dances and songs and playing piano at upper-middle-class salons, where he recruited music students. These are the interests he pursued upon leaving the university, studying more formally with Vogler and Forkel, under whose influence he added Bach to Mozart in his pantheon of most admired composers. The success of his setting of G.A. Bürger's ballad "Lenore" landed him a position as composer and family music tutor to Count Georg Buquoy in 1806. His duties were none too demanding, and for the next 18 years he would compose and travel widely, between household music tasks. Indeed, these were Tomásek's most productive years as a composer. This period ended around 1824, when Tomásek left the count's service to marry Wilhelmina Ebert and start a music school. The marriage fell apart within two years, although it did not formally end. The school did well, meanwhile, but Tomásek became less productive and rather more reclusive. He didn't return to his old self until after his wife died in 1836. Around that time his Monday evening salon concerts became a fixture of Prague's musical life. He performed his own music, supervised discussions, and welcomed such visitors as Berlioz, Paganini, and Wagner. Tomásek also became friendly with people attempting to develop a strain of Czech nationalism in the local music, although he himself never really followed their advice. Instead, he spent his last years continuing to teach and acting as a travel writer for local publications.