Johann Nepomuk Hummel

[JSK]

I just ordered a recording of a Hummel oratorio Der Durchzug Durchs Rote Meer on CPO cheaply and I'm curious to hear it. I know Hummel is not particularly obscure, but my understanding is that his music has been far overshadowed by Beethoven's. Grove says that "Hummel's music reached the highest level accessible to one who lacks ultimate genius." Any Hummel fans out there?

[Peter1953]

As I've mentioned in some other threads, to me Hummel reached his top level with his PC's opp. 85 & 89. These works are so beautiful and delicate. Both are early romantic showpieces as I see it. But having said this, I think Hummel has always been too loyal to the classical style and was therefore surpassed by other brilliant, more "progressive" composers. On the other hand, who cares? His music is always very pleasant and most appealing.

[TerraEpon]

On the other hand, who cares?

Some people do, for some strange reason. I remember someone on Usenet and a couple message boards who absolutely HATED some musc by composers like Glazunov and Gliere not because he didn't like them, but because they sounded like they were written many years after they were (he was also one of those who always seemed to give his opinion as if it were fact)

I can't fathom how someone like that could be a music lover, but eh....

[JimL]

Uh, Terra, I think you have it reversed.  That he hated them because they sounded like they were composed many years BEFORE they were makes more sense.  If they sounded like they were written many years after they were then they would be highly avant-garde, rather than reactionary.

Hummel is one of my favorite early Romantics.  I highly recommend also his A-flat Concerto, Op. 113, which was in Jorge Bolet's repertoire.

[TerraEpon]

....yeah that was a typo/mistake.

[chill319]

Regarding Terra's 'typo'... I think we all have the experience of hearing something by an unsung echo another composer's work already known to us, even though the unsung composed earlier. Burgmueller's Rhapsodie, for example, has passages that I can't help hearing as echt Brahms, even though it was written decades earlier than Brahms. (It was, of course, appreciated by Brahms.)

I think Hummel is another composer who's gotten a bad rap. If what I learned in school were true, all Hummel would embody an aesthetic close to Mozart's, whereas to my ears it's closer to Weber and other early nineteenth century composers.

[John H White]

I gather Hummel was a pupil of Mozart's but, as other Forum members have mentioned, his style is more early 19th than late 18th Century. I've often wondered if he ever got round to writing symphonies.

[Peter1953]

I've listened this evening again to Hummel's VC (in G), first the version completed by conductor Gregory Rose (on Naxos) and then in the version completed by Stephen Hogger (on Chandos). It's not my intention to compare both versions, and I cannot even say which one is preferable. Maybe, just maybe, the London Mozart Players give a more sparkling performance than the Russian PO. Both violinists are doing a fine job.

Interesting, an unfinished VC composed by in his days perhaps the greatest piano virtuoso alive. I think Hummel knew Spohr's early VC's, and maybe also those by Viotti (I think Viotti's VC's 19 and 22 are superior in every respect). The slow movement is the lovely heart of the concerto, I think. The style of the concerto is IMHO late classical and not early romantic. But never mind.

What amazes me is something Rose wrote in his booklet notes, not only once, but twice. Rose writes that Hummel's great rival was Beethoven, although they were friends. This puzzles me. Was Beethoven indeed a rival? Hardly possible to believe that. Beethoven was so much more a creator of heavenly music, emotional outbursts, full of creativity and always looking for new ideas, a real forerunner. Hummel, not at Beethoven's level, was IMHO not even a follower, but focussed mainly on the (safe?) classical style. However, as I've said before, he surely wrote very pleasing music.

Does any member know whether Beethoven was seen as Hummel's rival in those years?

[chill319]

Peter, Hummel was indeed viewed by some as a rival of Beethoven during the late 1810s and 1820s. His appearance at Beethoven's death bedside was considered a conciliatory gesture.

[JimL]

IIRC, the rivalry was mainly pianistic, and took place much earlier than the 1810s and 20s.  Hummel never trod on the compositional ground of the symphony, but wisely left it to Beethoven.  I'd be hard pressed to find a pianistic rival to Hummel after Beethoven's deafness took him off the performing stage.  Maybe Weber or Moscheles, and later on the Parisian schools of Herz and Kalkbrenner.  Both Hummel and Moscheles sound more classical than Weber.  BTW, John, I think your century count was a little off.  Did you perhaps mean his style was more late 18th than early 19th Century?

[TerraEpon]

Hummel didn't write a single symphony that we know of, apparently. Seventeen pieces for piano and orchestra though.

[Marcus]

If you are a lover iof masses, Hummel's glorious Missa Solemnis in C major is on Naxos #8.557.193.
Also his three op 30 string quartets are available on Hyperion #CDA 66568, all four movement works:
String Quartet in C major op30 no1,       (25'19")
    "          "        in G major  op30 no2,    (25"24")
    "          "        in E flat major op30 no3.(26'54")
J.N.Hummel never attempted a symphony. (Beethoven syndrome ? ) He certainly had the ability.
Grove lists some Orchestral works:Tanze fur den Apollosaal sets 1-5 opp.27,28,31,39,45, and Waltzer fur den Apollosaal for strings op91, and a Notturno for Wind Instruments op99. There is no discussion of these works.

However, the Prussian composer & harpist,Ferdinand Hummell (1855-1928) (no relation to J.N.), wrote a Symphony in D major op105. He also wrote operas, choral works, a Piano concerto in B flat major op35, & piano pieces, works for harp & chamber music. I doubt if any of these works have been recorded. John, that may be your reference to a Hummel symphony ?

Marcus

[John H White]

Many thanks, gentlemen,  for all those interesting further insights into the life and music of JN Hummel and his more recent namesake. I do have a recording of his Piano Quintet, featuring a double bass in the instrument line up which I gather Schubert copied for his famous Trout Quintet. Yes Jim, I did slip a couple of centuries in my last contribution which I have now rectified.

[Alan Howe]

The truth is that Hummel is one of those transitional figures, as his dates suggest. His music spans late classicism to incipient romanticism, depending on the piece you pick. The generation of Hummel, Spohr, Ries, Weber, Schubert, etc. all exhibit this trend.

[JimL]

But some moreso than others, Alan.  I would say that Weber is generally more forward-looking (or perhaps later composers looked more to him) than Hummel.  Schubert, on the other hand was truly a transitional figure, inasmuch as you can hear a transformation in his music as he matured.  Hummel's tunes sound much more conventional than those of many of his contemporaries.  I liken it to the music that may have been composed by his teacher Mozart had he lived to a ripe old age.