Hummel - Onslow - Piano Quintets

Hummel - Onslow - Piano Quintets
EAC RIP | FLAC + CUE + LOG | HQ Scans | 310mb
Brilliant Classics | Recorded: 2009 | Released: 2010
Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet

Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Piano Septets

Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Piano Septets
EAC RIP | FLAC + CUE + LOG | HQ Scans | mb
Brilliant Classics | Recorded: 209 | Released: 2010
Aya Okuyama - Alessandro Commellato - Solamente Naturali Bratislava

 

Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Der Durchzug durchs Rote Meer

Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Der Durchzug durchs Rote Meer
EAC RIP | WAVPACK + CUE + LOG | HQ Scans
CPO | Recorded: 2004 | Released: 2006
Rheinische Kantorei - Das Kleine Konzert - Hermann Max

Johann Nepomuk Hummel, a native of Bratislava, numbers among Mozart’s few documented pupils and was the only one of them to go on to enjoy a professional international career as a composer and a performing musician or pianist. Already on a first hearing of his playing, Mozart is said to have exclaimed: “You have to leave the boy with me; I won’t let him go; he can become something!”
Hummel was employed at the Esterházy court and later became music director in Weimar. During his lifetime his many piano compositions and chamber works attracted special attention. The oratorio Der Durchzug durchs rote Meer (The Passage Through the Red Sea) at first went unnoticed and continued to be labelled as “no longer extant” even last year in the new article in MGG, though the autograph has been in the holdings of the British Library in London for more than a hundred years.
Der Durchzug durchs rote Meer shows the influence of Haydn’s Creation or the oratorios of Handel and C. P. E. Bach but is shorter and an entirely independent piece of work in its melodic invention and formal elaboration. As so often before, Hermann Max and his ensembles have done the musical world a huge favour in preserving this tremendous work for posterity and almost certainly rescuing it from musical oblivion.

Hummel / Dussek / Onslow - Piano Quintets

Hummel / Dussek / Onslow - Piano Quintets
EAC RIP | FLAC + CUE + LOG | HQ Scans
Brilliant Classics | Recorded: 2006 | Released: 2006
Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet (on period instruments)

Hummel, Onslow and Dussek: maybe you have not heard of any of them. But looking at their dates of these ‘small masters’ one may notice their common denominator. 1778-1837, 1784- 1853, 1760-1812: in short, they are all comtemporaries of Beethoven (1770-1827). All three of them , but especially Johann Nepomuk Hummel, were piano virtuosos who composed as well.

It is not by chance that the name of the Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet refers to the composer Hummel. The ensemble consists of piano, 2 violins, viola, cello and double bass. This unusual combination is similar to the one Schubert later used for his Trout Quintet. Since their foundation in 1999 the musicians specialize in performing such music on period instruments.

The three quintets on this CD have a classical form and have a pleasant optimism in common. Extremely clear, sparkling and contagious performances by this Dutch ensemble. This is how this music should sound. A beautiful sonorous recording.

The Ducth classical music magazine Luister (March 2007) awarded this CD with top marks: 10. 

- Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Piano Quintet in E-flat minor Op.87
- Jan Ladislav Dussek: Quintet in F minor Op.41
- George Onslow: Quintet in G major Op.76