Hummel’s life straddled
most of Beethoven’s and all of Schubert’s,
and he knew them both well – bearing
Beethoven’s coffin and organising the
memorial concert. A pianist, he received
the dedication of Schubert’s great final
trilogy of piano sonatas. His music
seems to bear little of these potential
influences, retaining much more in common
with Haydn and Mozart. He composed a
fair number of concertos, mostly for
the piano. Stephen Hough’s superb disc
of the A minor and B minor concertos
(CHAN8507) is the best place to start
and his trumpet concerto is also splendid.
This disc brings together
two much rarer works including an incomplete
violin concerto. It seems that Hummel
was writing this work at about the time
Beethoven completed his sole foray into
the genre (1806) and their rivalry may
have led to its remaining unfinished.
The solo part was entire and the concerto
has been completed by conductor Gregory
Rose whose tasks were to add to the
instrumentation (the orchestra remains
small, lacking in clarinets, trumpets
or timpani) and cadenzas, and edit the
whole. This version was first performed
in London in 1998. The work is formally
unremarkable although it should be noted
that the central adagio is very brief.
The
concerto for violin and piano which
opens the disc is an unusual format
indeed - the only other example of the
genre in my collection is by Martinů!
It is interesting that it was written
in same year as Beethoven’s triple
concerto (which is the same format plus
a cello soloist) although there is no
Beethovenian grandeur here, rather much
Mozartian grace. After an orchestral
introduction, the unwary might assume
that this is a piano concerto initially.
However, when the violin does enter
the piano often takes a decorative backseat
and the two soloists rarely combine
as equals. In the finale the piano begins
with a notable opening solo. This work
does not require great virtuosity from
either soloist but listening to it is
a pleasant way to spend half an hour
or so. If I understood the notes correctly,
Gregory Rose also contributed a cadenza
to the finale of this work although
the attribution seems to have been misplaced
on the back liner.
Both concertos receive
decent enough performances from the
Russian forces. The soloists do not
overplay their hand and there is good
rapport between them in the double concerto.
The recorded sound is a bit disappointing
– it is not absolutely crystal clear
and the violin is rather too forwardly
balanced in both concertos. The documentation
includes authoritative notes by Gregory
Rose. One oddity is that nowhere is
the key of either work indicated - I
would suspect that both are in G major.
This is a logical,
interesting coupling and a worthwhile
bargain.
Patrick C Waller
see also review
by Jonathan Woolf
Alexander Trostiansky (violin) 
