The reputation of Johann Nepomuk Hummel-child prodigy, student of Mozart, successor of Haydn and Beethoven' rival, widely-travelled piano virtuoso, composer, conductor, influential teacher and ingenious businessman-is once more on the rise.

Chandos has made Hummel something of a speciality, and this month has come up with some bravoura concertante works for violin, viola and piano. The young Canadian soloist James Ehnes is noted for the brilliance of his violin playing, and here he makes his debut as violist in the 'Potpourri' - as well as appearing for the first time on Chandos Records. Howard Shelley - a seasoned Chandos artist - has made several outstanding recordings of Hummel for Chandos, and here adds another.

La contemplazione offers a glimpse into “Viennese Classicism” through two authors who, while almost antagonistic, were also complementary and contemporary: Hummel and Schubert. In the late 1820s, European music was at a fascinating crossroads: the musical style that had dominated the old continent since 1780 (commonly known as “Viennese Classicism”) was in crisis and entering its final phase. At a time when tradition and innovation coexisted, emerging expressive needs pushed composers to seek alternatives to classical canons. La contemplazione offers a glimpse into this period through two authors who, while almost antagonistic, were also complementary and contemporary: Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) and Franz Schubert (1797-1828). About the Instrument: Fortepiano Graf 1826/1827 (Edwin Beunk collection)

In an environment of fierce competition among various piano manufacturing houses, Conrad Graf emerged as the reference brand in Vienna, even being named the official constructor of the empire. Graf built the piano used in this recording in 1826 or 1827 with a range of six and a half octaves.

The Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) studied both piano and composition with his great countryman Mozart, and was also a friend of Beethoven, of which aspects of these relationships we can hear all throughout his septets. We can hear, too, why Robert Schumann's generation praised him so highly. As heard in these recordings, here is a Classical master on the cusp of the Romantic era, original in instrumentation and technique and subtle in his harmonies.

As a pupil of Mozart and contemporary of Beethoven, Hummel was esteemed for the elegance of both his playing and his music. The opus numbers of these appealing quintets are misleading. The Op. 87 belongs to his early period, much more Classical and Mozartian in manner than the powerful Op. 74 which opens with a powerful D minor statement and continues in turbulent fashion as a work belonging to 1815, by which time the composer had achieved both fame and security.

A quartet of Dutch string players, experienced in the early-music scene, forms the core of the Nepomuk quintet, named after the composer on this album; they are joined by the pianist Riko Fukuda, who contributes an authoritative essay on Hummel and his piano quintets to the booklet.

REVIEW:

This is a very valuable release… The manner in which all five musicians construct musical phrases throughout is quite impressive. And their sound blends superbly … The refinement with which these musicians rediscover this relatively unknown music is simply astonishing … The sound of this recording is quite impressive too; the level of detail is amazing, and the spatial depth is compelling.

-- Fanfare

Following on from her debut album impressions, featuring chamber music for bassoon and piano, bassoon player Sophie Dervaux is poised to release her second album on the Berlin Classics label. Previously released on CD she now presents Mozart and Hummel bassoon concertos on Vinyl. Sophie Dervaux has been principal bassoonist of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra since 2015. Previously, she was principal contrabassoonist of the Berlin Philharmonic. As an ambassador for her instrument, she is committed to expanding the repertoire for bassoon by rediscovering works or commissioning new ones. She has been a “Püchner Artist” since 2014 and is passionate about making her instrument even better known.

The chamber music with flute by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) is, although always elegant and cheerful, never merely trivially smooth. Rather, it continues to surprise with it's great melodic charm and winning ideas. It is light music in the best sense, calculated to excite connoisseurs and enthusiasts alike. For making music in private, the works prove to be as equally suitable for performance in the bourgeois and aristocratic salons as the public concert hall. The convincing use of historical instruments aims not only at perfect balance, but additional aural appeal.

Born and raised in Foggia, Italy, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, a top prizewinner at the 1998 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition, winner of the 1999 Cleveland Int'l Piano Competition, and silver medalist at the 2001 Van Cliburn Int'l Piano Competition, appears regularly at the world's major concert venues. A beloved professor at the Cleveland Institute of Music and a prolific Centaur recording artist, this release marks the second volume in his complete traversal of the piano sonatas of Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837). "... warmth, exquisite taste and...arresting technique." (The LA Times)

This disc completes John Khouri's survey of Hummel's later piano works begun with his earlier disc of the two greatest piano sonatas on MACD1103. The present recording includes the 24 Etudes published in 1833 and is followed by the 3 Amusements from 1824 and 2 substantial Rondos - those in B minor, 1825 and C major from 1831 in first recordings on early pianos.

HUMMEL Piano Sonatas: No. 2 in E?; No. 3 in f. Bagatelle in A?, “La contemplazione” • Susan Alexander-Max (fp) (period instrument) • CHANDOS 765 (67:11)


Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837) is an important transitional composer, especially from a pianistic viewpoint, between the late-18th and early-19th centuries; he is, unfortunately, also a composer who is underrepresented in the recording catalog. Among currently available recordings, Stephen Hough seems to be the only figure of international standing performing today to have devoted any effort to him. Two recordings that I think have stood out in the last 20 years have been the aforementioned one by Stephen Hough of three sonatas for Hyperion (67390), recorded back in 2003, and Dana Protopopescu’s album for Koch Discover (920237) of three sonatas, recorded in 1995. They both bring a virtuoso technique and a good musical sensibility.


Though I am no fan of the fortepiano, Alexander-Max is a good advocate for both the instrument and the repertoire. Her playing has sensitivity and a good attention to articulation and detail. Sometimes though, it is her attention to these small elements that hampers the overall flow of the music. Her tempos in the fast movements tend to be on the slow side: this provides her ample opportunity to bring out many details, but also tends to make the rapid scale and arpeggio patterns sound a bit sluggish. In comparing just the timings of the final movement of the F-Minor Sonata’s finale, marked Presto , Alexander-Max clocks in at 5:22 to Hough’s 3:59! There is no repeat in this movement, so the temporal difference is not reflected in the omission of any material. Even Protopopescu, who does not play this movement nearly as fast as Hough, clocks in around 5: 01—still over 20 seconds faster than Alexander-Max.


Tempo is not the only factor that makes the fast movements seem sluggish though; it is also the lack of intensity brought to many of the figurational patterns that lead to important beats. The focus for example in the E? Sonata’s finale, this time marked Allegro con spirito , seems to be more on the clarity of notes than on the constant surging motion. In the passage from 00:20 to 00:24, Hummel marks a crescendo moving from piano to forte in the span of two measures. In this performance, though a small crescendo does exist, the kind that Hummel requires does not. The tension and release inherent in the sudden dynamic buildup and rest, held with a fermata that follows this passage, is lost. Though the passagework is clean and articulate, the musical excitement is absent. There is a lack of drama.


There are many good aspects to this album as well. My favorite piece that the pianist plays here is the Bagatelle in A?. Marked Larghetto , it is a fantasy in which much of the beginning material comes back with added figuration. Here, Alexander-Max chooses not only a good tempo, one that flows and allows the movement to progress naturally, but also brings all of her interpretative skills to the fore. She maintains an acute sense of articulation and voicing, and a quality of freedom, almost improvisatory at times—all essential for a fantasy. Her ending pianissimo is as delicate and beautiful as any I’ve heard.


This is a fine addition to the recorded discography of Hummel’s music. I would especially recommend it for period-instrument enthusiasts, though the two previously mentioned recordings, by Hough and Protopopescu—both on modern grand pianos—provide good, in some cases excellent, readings of this much-neglected repertoire.


FANFARE: Scott Noriega

Johann Nepomuk Hummel was considered one of Europe' finest pianist-composers. Occupying the fascinating interim period between the Haydn-Mozart era and the great violin works of the German romantic composers, Hummel' only Violin Concerto, heard here.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel was regarded in his time as one of the great pianist/composers and heir to the Classical tradition of his teachers: Mozart, Salieri, and Haydn. This CD of four of Hummel's piano trios gives a clear presentation of his approachable style and displays his skills as both a composer and virtuoso player. It's easy to see how Hummel's charming music appealed to his contemporaries, many of whom rated him above his friend and colleague Beethoven, whose music they sometimes found less accessible. The openness of Hummel's expression, usually cheerful in tone and pleasantly diatonic, and the ease of his writing for the piano and strings suggest the popular success of his music, though, as is often the case with music that doesn't challenge listeners, it may also seem superficial and facile. The Gould Piano Trio gives these pieces engaging performances that are evenly balanced yet varied in expression, and true to the Classical ideal in chamber music, there is a conversational give and take that the players participate in equally, and little of the block-like ensemble writing that afflicts many later Romantic piano trios. The recording at Champs Hill, West Sussex, UK, captures the open and airy acoustics of a room designed for chamber performances, which is advantageous to the transparency of Hummel's textures and to the Gould's lucid performances.

– Blair Sanderson, All Music Guide

Trained by Mozart and Haydn, Johann Nepomuk Hummel enjoyed the highest reputation as a composer and virtuoso performer of his day. His piano trios are characterised by their richness of sonority, good humour and flowing melodic inventiveness. While the influence of Beethoven can be heard, Hummel’s own creative voice is highly distinctive. The early Piano Trio, Op. 12 exudes the atmosphere of Vienna at the turn of the 19th century, and the Grand Trio is a concerto in all but name, the demands on the pianist expressly designed for its dedicatee Johann Baptist Cramer.

HUMMEL POMPA-BALDI (PIANO) PIANO SONATAS VOL. 1- SONATA OP. 2, NO. 3 IN C MAJOR; SONATA OP.13 IN E-FLAT MAJOR; SONATA OP. 20 IN F MINOR

This admirable recital forms a sequel to Stephen Hough's Gramophone Award-winning Chandos disc of the A minor and B minor Piano Concertos (4/87). And although the music is less enticing and substantial, the performances less exuberantly virtuosic and elegantly inflected, these are decorous rarities played with an assured brilliance and affection. Hummel's Mozartian rather than Chopinesque bias declares itself most obviously in his Op. 73 Concertino, though even here, at 315" for example, the figuration has a recognizably Hummelian froth and sparkle. Too charming to be vacuous, such surface brio has little in common with Mozart's depth and subtlety, and for music of greater romantic range and ambition we turn to the A flat Concerto (music briefly in Jorge Bolet's repertoire), with its fuller scoring and lavishly decorated solo part. Lovers of a finespun, operatic cantilena will warm to the central "Romanze" and find the final Rondo alla Spagniola, even when it outstays its welcome, more than a prophecy of Chopin's E minor Concerto.

The Gesellschafts Rondo (offered here in a premiere recording) commences in solemn Adagio vein before turning to a more typically bustling and ceremonious Vivace. It may be that Hummel "puffed, blew and perspired" when he played but he won the admiration of Chopin (a hard master to please and one who turned Hummel's animation to rare poetic advantage) and his sheer style is infectious when projected with such unfailing expertise by Howard Shelley in his dual role as pianist and conductor of the London Mozart Players. The recordings are exceptionally well balanced, the acoustic pleasingly spacious.

-- Gramophone [1/1995]