Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2

On this CD:

1. Piano Sonata No.4 in C major, Op.38
Composed by Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Performed by Constance Keene

2. Piano Sonata No.5 in F-sharp minor, Op.81 ("Grand Sonata")
Composed by Johann Nepomuk Hummel
Performed by Constance Keene

Tracks:

Sonata No. 1 In C Major, Op. 2, No. 3: Allegro Spiritoso
Sonata No. 1 In C Major, Op. 2, No. 3: Adagio
Sonata No. 1 In C Major, Op. 2, No. 3: Rondo
Sonata No. 2 In Eb Major, Opus 13: Allegro con Brio
Sonata No. 2 In Eb Major, Opus 13: Adagio con gran Espressione
Sonata No. 2 In Eb Major, Opus 13: Finale, Allegro conspirito
Sonata No. 3 In F Minor, Op. 29: Allegro Moderato
Sonata No. 3 In F Minor, Op. 29: Adagio Maestoso
Sonata No. 3 In F Minor, Op. 29: Finale, Presto

Customer Reviews:

Interesting music...Would be more so with better interpreter.......2001-08-15

This album and its two companions are fascinating. By listening to this music, which was written around the same time as Beethoven's most thrilling piano works, one realizes just how avant-garde Beethoven (and Mozart and Haydn and Schubert, for that matter) really were. These are easy-on-the-ear, happy pieces, that don't so much develop as repeat,or repeat with simple variations and ornamentations. There's little dramatic trension, virtually no drama by modern-day ears' standards (though I'm sure it was demanding to audiences of its day). The works are pleasant and easy on the ear and easily forgotten the moment they are done. (Those interested in the history of this kind of music, and its place in Viennese society vis a vis the more "weighty" and innovative music of Beethoven, Mozart, et al, should check out the book "Beethoven and the Construction of Genius: Musical Politics in Vienna, 1792-1803," by Tia DeNora....) Here and there are moments of interest, unusual strokes and sheer exuberance. But they're far and few between and gone all too quickly. (These are much blander than Hummel's piano concerti, at least to my ears.) Constance Keene plays cleanly but without much expression or personality, and sometimes gets tripped up in the areas requiring more dexterity. One keeps wondering, though, what these works would sound like, what surprises are still locked up in them, waiting for a Pires or Pollini to reveal them to the world.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2

Average customer rating:

Delightful performance of two great sonatas
Trite works, anonymously played..."average" music of the day

Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2

Manufacturer: Newport Classic
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 3
Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Complete Piano Sonatas, Vol. 1

ASIN: B00004S2TC
Release Date: 2000-09-19

Tracks:

Son No.4 in C, Op.38: 1. Allegro
Son No.4 in C, Op.38: 2. Adagio
Son No.4 in C, Op.38: 3. Prestissimo
Son No.5 in f#, Op.81: 1. Allegro
Son No.5 in f#, Op.81: 2. Largo
Son No.5 in f#, Op.81: 3. Finale, Tempo Vivace

Customer Reviews:

Delightful performance of two great sonatas.......2002-03-31

Johann Nepomuk Hummel is little known in today's "mainstream" classical music, but in his time he was a very famous and respectable composer-pianist whose technical mastery had been said to be rivaled only by Beethoven. Hummel was also a pupil of Mozart, the successor of Haydn as Kappelmeister at the Esterhazy palace, and the original dedicatee of Schubert's last three piano sonatas.

Hummel's music may not have the genius of Mozart or the striking originality of Beethoven, but it never lacks charm and spontaneity. The C major sonata op. 38 is a homage to Mozart, as evident in the various themes "borrowed" from the K.330 Sonata, Haffner symphony, 25th piano concerto, and Figaro, among others. Mozartian but unmistakably Hummel, this work contains outbursts of difficult passageworks so unusual in the classical treatment of sonata.

Schumann is said to have wished that he could play the F# sonata op. 91, a dramatic, ambitious work of grand proportion and a "technical minefield" suffused with crossed-hands, rapid leaps, and rising double notes. Brooding melancholy and unexpected modulations characterizing this piece foreshadow the late romantic sonatas of Schubert.

The delicate and disciplined approach taken by Constance Keene is well suited to Hummel's often florid and contrapuntal writing. However, at times one is left wanting for more spontaneity and 'con fuoco', particularly in the F# minor sonata.

Trite works, anonymously played..."average" music of the day.......2001-08-15

This album and its two companions are fascinating, but not for the expected reason. By listening to this music, which was written around the same time as Beethoven's most thrilling piano works, one realizes just how avant-garde Beethoven (and Mozart and Haydn and Schubert, for that matter) were. These are easy-on-the-ear, happy little surface pieces, that don't so much develop as repeat with ornamentation. There's generally little dramatic trension, virtually no drama, and little in the way of organic unfolding. They are pleasant and easy on the ear and forgotten the moment they are done. Here and there are moments of interest, unusual strokes. But they're far and few between and gone all too quickly. (These are much blander than Hummel's piano concerti, at least to my ears.) However, it must be realized that Hummel was giving the aristocracy of Vienna what it basically wanted, and even here may have been pushing them far. Many at the time held the idealin music to be "agreeability," "tunefulness," and "beauty." Realistically that translates to simple meloides executed over and over so that the listener acquires an easy familiarity with them. The sudden changes in key, meter, dynamics, etc., of a Beethoven must have shaken these audiences to their bones! And that fundamental change in musical expectations and aesthetics paved the way for everything from Liszt to the avant-garde of our own century. THAT is why Beethoven is one of the world's greatest geniuses, something many people do not even realize. Hearing what "the rest of Vienna" was listening to at the same time that Beethoven was writing the likes of the Appassionata Sonata and the Fifth Symphony.

Constance Keene plays these pleasant but unremarkable works cleanly but without much personality (perhaps, however, that is how they ought to be played), and sometimes gets tripped up in the areas requiring more dexterity. Overall these works exist somewhere on that fringe between classical music and classical MUZAK.

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