Download PROGRAM NOTES Johann Nepomuk Hummel

PROGRAM NOTES
by Phillip Huscher
Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 85
Born November 14, 1778, Pressburg (now Bratislava).
Died October 17, 1837, Weimar, Germany.
Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 85
Hummel composed this concerto in 1816 and was the soloist at the first performance in Vienna. The
orchestra consists of flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and
strings. Performance time is approximately thirty-three minutes.
These are the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's first subscription concert performances of Hummel's A
minor piano concerto. The Orchestras has performed this concerto at the Ravinia Festival only once, on
July 23, 1988, with Stephen Hough as soloist and Edo de Waart conducting.
This piano concerto is the first piece Robert Schumann studied under his celebrated teacher Friedrich
Wieck, his future father-in-law--little Clara, only nine years old at the time, may well have eavesdropped
on her future husband's lessons--and it was obviously in the back of his mind when he eventually wrote
his own concerto, also in A minor. This was also one of Chopin's models as he composed his two piano
concertos. Yet, for all the admiration important musicians felt for it, Johann Hummel's A minor piano
concerto has never known anything like the popularity of the works it inspired. The Chicago Symphony,
which has programmed Schumann's concerto during almost half of its 118 seasons, has never performed
Hummel's concerto downtown before this week (the Orchestra has played it once, at Ravinia, in 1988).
Even Hummel's most regularly played work, his trumpet concerto, didn't find a place on the Orchestra's
concerts until 1971.
It has become Hummel's fate to be overlooked and underrated, even though, in a way that is possible at
rare moments in history, he knew nearly all of the great musical figures of his time. He was a student of
Mozart's for two years, starting at the age of eight, and even lived with the composer's family in the
Vienna apartment where Mozart wrote The Marriage of Figaro and countless other masterworks. He later
studied with Haydn and became a close friend of Beethoven, eight years his junior, although that
relationship was often strained. (In 1827, Hummel hurried back to Vienna for a final reconciliation at
Beethoven's bedside; he served as a pallbearer at the funeral, and, at Beethoven's wish, played
variations on the Prisoners' Chorus from Fidelio at the memorial concert.) He also knew Schubert, who
dedicated his last three piano sonatas to him.
In his own time, Hummel was known not for the circles in which he moved--these were not the important
people to know then, in any case--but for his talent as a virtuoso pianist and as a composer of nearly
everything but symphonies, no doubt due to a persistent rivalry with Beethoven. He left us not only an
enormous body of solo piano music (the product of his concertizing) and many works for piano and
orchestra, but also dozens of songs, choral works, ballet scores, and operas. Hummel had all the great
musical gifts except for true genius, and, unlike many a greater composer, he enjoyed considerable
popularity during his lifetime, heard his music played and admired, and even made money.
This concerto is a brilliant demonstration of the imagination with which Hummel wrote for the piano, and it
suggests that his skill at the keyboard must have been extraordinary, for it is a real bravura showpiece.
(Schumann, one of the greatest pianists of the age, told Hummel that he worked on the piece for a full
year in his lessons with Wieck.) The "novel and dazzling difficulties" that Carl Czerny regularly heard in
Hummel's Viennese performances show up in the abundant runs (in thirds), leaps, and hand-crossings of
the A minor concerto. The fluid, expository style of the piano writing here also suggests the nature of
Hummel's famed art of improvisation--he often was said to be the best improviser of the age, even better
than Beethoven. (Hummel's published "improved" versions of several concertos by Mozart effectively
demonstrate his skill at elaborate, though arguably unnecessary, embroidery.)
The A major concerto is a big piece, even for its time (it was written in 1816, seven years after
Beethoven's final piano concerto, the Emperor). The opening orchestral exposition, which builds to the
entrance of the soloist, is longer than any such passage in Beethoven. The entire first movement is strong
and powerful--despite the piano's quiet entrance--and the virtuoso solo writing never seems merely
decorative. The slow movement features an impressive piano melody marked "con gran expressione,"
recalling Czerny's memory of the "intimate and tender expression" of Hummel's own lyrical playing. This
lovingly detailed movement, as satisfying and substantial as it is, only sets the stage for Hummel's finale,
a wide-ranging, all-eyes-on-the-pianist showpiece that saves its biggest fireworks for the very end.
Phillip Huscher is the program annotator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
© Chicago Symphony Orchestra. All rights reserved. Program notes may be reproduced only in their
entirety and with express written permission from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
These notes appear in galley files and may contain typographical or other errors. Programs subject to
change without notice.