Hummel - Piano Sonatas - Hyperion: CDA67390 - CD or download

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Stephen Hough's splendid issue is in its way as revelatory as his Gramophone Award-winning recordings of the piano concertos. He revels in the element of display which Hummel, one of the leading... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 7th Oct 2003
Catalogue No: CDA67390
Label: Hyperion
Length: 69 minutes

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Hummel, J: Piano Sonata No. 5 in F sharp minor, Op. 81

Work length25:08

$3.30

$4.50

Stephen Hough (piano)

I. Allegro

Track length8:23

$1.10

$1.50

II. Largo con molt' espressione

Track length8:59

$1.10

$1.50

III. Vivace

Track length7:46

$1.10

$1.50

Hummel, J: Piano Sonata in D major Op. 106

Work length26:33

$4.40

$6.00

Stephen Hough (piano)

I. Allegro moderato, ma risoluto

Track length11:52

$1.10

$1.50

II. Un scherzo all' antico: Allegro, ma non troppo

Track length3:52

$1.10

$1.50

III. Larghetto a capriccio

Track length4:30

$1.10

$1.50

IV. Allegro vivace

Track length6:19

$1.10

$1.50

Hummel, J: Piano Sonata in F minor Op. 20

Work length17:32

$3.30

$4.50

Stephen Hough (piano)

I. Allegro moderato

Track length8:05

$1.10

$1.50

II. Adagio maestoso

Track length5:28

$1.10

$1.50

III. Presto

Track length3:59

$1.10

$1.50

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About

Once more Hyperion is proud to champion music that has little seen the light of day in the shadow of the greats. Hummel was revered in his lifetime not only ahead of those we call the greats today but by the greats of his day, Schumann, Liszt, Chopin and Mendelssohn among them. Hummel's unjust posthumous neglect lasted until only very recently. Never having been content with a repertoire of warhorses, Hough has throughout his career made a point of playing Hummel, whose music of such fresh imagination pre-echoes more familiar music. Chopin in particular was happy to use ideas prompted by Hummel's example. We are at the bridge between the classical and the romantic styles and Hough's instinctively virile elegance brings out the sense of adventure that is at the heart of Hummel's vibrant imagination. A disc to explore and re-visit.

Reviews

2010

Stephen Hough's splendid issue is in its way as revelatory as his Gramophone Award-winning recordings of the piano concertos. He revels in the element of display which Hummel, one of the leading pianists of his day, must have brought out in his own performances.
These three works are arguably the most interesting of Hummel's nine solo sonatas.
The most radical is No 5, with the composer in 1819 enthusiastically throwing himself behind the new romantic movement. A strikingly angular opening motif leads to an argument which, in a very free rendering of sonata form, brings surges of energy set against moments of reflection; there are many unexpected melodic and harmonic twists and few passages of conventional figuration, such as those that weaken the piano concertos.
The slow movement, too, opens surprisingly, with a heavyweight fortissimo gesture, before settling down to a yearning melody, anticipating Chopin's Nocturnes but more bare in texture, with cantilena echoing bel canto opera.
The finale is a wild Slavonic dance, fierce and energetic in headlong flight, again dotted with unexpectedly angular ideas.
In the Sixth Sonata in 1824 Hummel was rowing back from the romantic stance of Op 81.
The first movement establishes a much lighter tone and is more conventional in structure, exceptionally clear in its presentation of sonata form. The opening theme, for all its lightness of texture, has characteristically quirky twists, and leads to a warmly lyrical second subject, rather like Weber. The second movement Scherzo, the most striking of the four, is a fast mazurka, leading to a slow movement rather like a Mendelssohn Song without Words and a virtuoso finale, light in texture at the start and ending, after all the display, in an unexpected throwaway cadence.
Sonata No 3 in F minor, dating from 1807, again starts gently before developing quirks typical of Hummel. The slow movement then surprisingly has the marking Maestoso, majestic, strong and forthright rather than conventionally lyrical, leading to another virtuoso finale, relatively brief, with cross-hand, Scarlatti-like leaps for the left hand.

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