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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
OUT OF THE SHADOWS, 10 Jul 2004
Hummel is the sort of composer one mainly reads about in books and articles on Mozart Beethoven or Chopin. The liner note reveals that as late as 1950 there were only two trifles by him on record at all, and I have to admit that in my own collection he has been represented until now only by the trumpet concerto, although I seem to have known him all my life through reading about Chopin Beethoven and Mozart. From as early as a single generation after he died, he started to be subjected to foolish and supercilious put-downs. The note-writer Jeremy Nicholas properly rebuts that sort of thing, and gives what seems to me a very fair and balanced appraisal of his subject. This is not music that scales the heights, but I would call it very agreeable and interesting music, and unpretentious music too, making no ascents in the balloon. It seems that even the generous-spirited Schumann predicted that one of the sonatas on this disc was going to be all of Hummel that would live into posterity, and I for one am pleased that posterity has done better than that.Stephen Hough is a player whose work I know a little, and the style he adopts for this selection seems to me very acceptable. He uses a Steinway and not a contemporary instrument, and I have no problem with that. His dynamic range is neither restricted nor overdone, his tempi seem judicious and when real virtuosity is required in the final movement of op20 he turns it out effortlessly. His tone-quality is warm, and if I had to compare him to a major player of the previous generation it would perhaps be Kovacevich who comes to mind. This record doesn't give me quite enough material to identify a fully distinctive personal style, and the page about him in the leaflet predictably bestows on him that vague and conventional laudation that is distributed like the gentle rain from heaven upon the earth beneath and on its own would not distinguish his musical personality from a thousand others. There is little or nothing in the performances to criticise, I should say, for the general music-lover wishing to know the composer better, and a great deal to admire and learn from. The three sonatas on this disc date from when the composer was 29 to when he was 46. Jeremy Nicholas seems to me reasonable in his general comments, but I wish he had not spoiled them with occasional sloppy thinking. Chopin's etudes, for one thing, are not written in the 24 keys. His preludes are, but I'd feel pretty sure Bach had more to do with that than Hummel. Nor do I perceive that the Alberti base was some 'mainstay of the classical sonata'. Mozart used it aplenty, but of Haydn the statement is far from true. Again, I can't see how the fact that the F# sonata has no first movement repeat makes it resemble a fantasy. Does Mr Nicholas find that Beethoven's Appassionata resembles a fantasy for this reason? And again, the sonata in D is longer here than the F# only because the repeat is observed, and the number of bars in each is completely irrelevant. The recorded sound is good and well tailored to the touch that Hough adopts. As an introduction to a minor, neglected and interesting master I have found this disc a very welcome addition to my own collection. I shall be both saddened and surprised if many do not feel the same way.
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~ Johann Nepomuk Hummel
~ Johann Nepomuk Hummel
~ Johann Nepomuk Hummel
~ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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