Kummer was an oboist
in the Dresden Court Orchestra in his
teens, later gravitating to the cello
section. Multi-instrumental facility
was clearly his but the cello was to
be his principal focus and his position
in Dresden as performer and pedagogue
was an august one. The studies he wrote
for his own instrument are still of
value to this day, and the Duets he
wrote, all undated here, grew from the
mid-nineteenth century vogue for Hausmusik.
They are elegantly
crafted and lyrically delightful, without
any pretensions to significance beyond
their original function. Kummer drew
deeply from the well of baroque inspiration,
calling on the shade of Handel in particular,
whilst also showing awareness of certain
contemporary trends. The notes mention
Wagner in this respect but Mendelssohn,
whom they also mention and in whose
quartet Kummer sometimes played, is
a better example as is to a certain
extent Schumann. He was not as influenced
by Weber as was, say, Kalliwoda.
Played on baroque cellos,
using gut strings, and therefore at
low pitch these are warm performances.
The Carrai-Tomkins duo brings out the
Schumann influence in Op.22/1 with its
instructional undercurrents and they
are careful to spin the melody over
pizzicati in the Andantino. In Op.156/5
he uses Handel’s See the Conquering
Hero as a theme for a series of
amiable variations with a slight adagio
to give textual and emotive variety.
In the Arioso from its opus mate Op.156/3
Kummer ransacks the Water Music for
some decorative variational writing
shared between the two instruments.
The range of influences
is expanded by Schubert in Op.22/2 though
the most arresting of all the slow movements
here is that of Op.103/1. Kummer is
not above a degree of humour, quoting
from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in Op.103/4
where, in the finale, he stretches out
enough to include a frolicsome dance
finale – with an Iberian tinge.
The playing, as suggested
earlier, is adroit and appropriate to
the material. Sometimes I felt things
could go with greater incision but nothing
is unnecessarily inflated. The inspiration
for the project, Cellos for Chelsea,
is a fine one, with all proceeds from
the disc going to children’s cancer
charities.
Jonathan Woolf
Phoebe Carrai and Tanya Tomkins (cellos) 
