Piano Concertos Nos 20 & 25 (arr Hummel)

"There is much joy to be gleaned from this product. What with Shiraga and Ogawa, BIS are sitting on a veritable pianistic goldmine"
(MusicWeb)

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837) had already reached the age of nine by the time he was ready to emulate his illustrious teacher, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and tour Europe as a prodigy pianist. He furthered his study of the piano with Clementi in London and studied composition in Vienna with Salieri, Albrechtsberger and Joseph Haydn. And he was also a friend of Beethoven! Though, as a composer, he is nowadays mainly remembered for his piano music, he left behind a substantial oeuvre covering all genres of music with the exception of the symphony. He has been described as the "elder statesman of Viennese classicism".

We live in a purist age as far as "classical" music is concerned and so we tend to shudder at the very idea of altering a single note of the classical masterpieces; especially works that are as perfectly balanced as the two great piano concertos by Mozart that are performed on this record (No. 20 in D minor, KV 466 & No. 25 in C major, KV 503). But Hummel was of a different age and a different mentality. The greater the music, the more reason for making it available to as wide a public as possible. And so, for the publisher Schott, some forty years after Mozart's death, Hummel produced chamber arrangements of seven of Mozart's piano concertos. This was by no means a matter of reducing the orchestral material so that it could be undertaken by the flute, violin and cello that Hummel employed to support the piano. Rather, he re-arranged the entire musical material for the piano and then added the three instruments.

More Hummel than Mozart? Current interest in performing Mozart on the fortepiano stems from an understanding that the use of a modern Steinway piano has profoundly affected the way in which Mozart's piano concertos are conceived - however stylistically aware the performers may be. By the time that Hummel produced his arrangements of Mozart's concertos the piano had undergone important developments. The compass had been extended to a full seven octaves and the dynamics of the instrument were considerably greater than in Mozart's time. These developments are reflected in Hummel's versions which, quite simply, could not have been performed on Mozart's own piano.

Fumiko Shiraga had an enormous success a few years back with her "chamber" versions of the Chopin piano concertos performed with string quartet ("one of the most exciting Chopin recordings in recent years" Gramophone 6/1997). She brings to the current task not merely an enviable technique but the infectious enthusiasm that is so essential to a performance of these arrangements. The accompanying trio of musicians is no less distinguished. Hummel would surely have been impressed by the result. And Mozart himself would certainly have been entertained by many of Hummel's "solutions" and by the excellence of the performances. Something different from BIS - yet again!