Hummel: Bassoon Concerto / Clarinet Quartet

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Cat No: 8554280

Release Date: 12 January 1999

Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 636943428023

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: HUMMEL

Description
Johann Nepomuk Hummel(1778-1837)Concerto in F majorfor Bassoon and OrchestraIntroduction, Themeand Variations in F major for Oboe and Orchestra Quartet in E flatmajor for Clarinet, Violin, Viola and CelloLargely neglected by posterity, Johann Nepomuk Hummel enjoyed thehighest reputation in his own time as both composer and virtuoso performer. Theincreasing availability of his music, in print and in recordings, is evidenceof the unjustified nature of the posthumous neglect of his work, although neitherthe bicentenary of his birth nor the 150th anniversary of his death havearoused the interest that his compositions clearly deserve.Hummel was born in 1778 in Pressburg (the modem Slovak capital,Bratislava), the son of a musician. At the age of four he could read music, atfive play the violin and at six the piano. Two years later he became a pupil ofMozart in Vienna, lodging, as was the custom, in his master's house. OnMozart's suggestion the boy and his father embarked in 1788 on an extended concerttour. For four years they travelled through Germany and Denmark and by thespring of 1790 they were in Edinburgh, where they spent three months. Therefollowed visits to Durham and to Cambridge before they arrived, in the autumn,in London. Plans in 1792 to tour France and Spain seemed inopportune at a timeof revolution, so father and son made their way back through Holland to Vienna.The next ten years of Hummers career found him occupied in study, incomposition and in teaching in Vienna. When Beethoven had settled in Vienna in1792, the year after Mozart's death, he had sought lessons from Haydn, fromAlbrechtsberger and from the CourtComposer Antonio Salieri. Hummel was to study with the same teachers, the mostdistinguished Vienna had to offer. Albrechtsberger provided a sound technicalbasis for his composition, while Salieri gave instruction in writing for thevoice and in the philosophy of aesthetics. Haydn, after his second visit toLondon, gave him some organ lessons, but warned him of the possible effect onhis touch as a pianist. It was through Haydn that Hummel became Konzertmeisterto the second Prince Nicolaus Esterhazy in 1804, effectively doing the workof Kapellmeister, a title that Haydn held nominally until his death in1809. He had Haydn to thank, too, for his retention of his position with theEsterhazy family when in 1808 neglect of his duties had brought dismissal. Hisconnection with the family came to an end in 1811 but his period of service hadgiven him experience as a composer of church and theatre music, while hisfather, as director of music at the Theater auf der Wieden and later of thefamous Apollo Saal, provided other opportunities.Hummel had impressed audiences as a child by his virtuosity as apianist. He returned to the concert platform in 1814, at the time of theCongress of Vienna, a year after his marriage, but it was the Grand Duchy ofWeimar, home of Goethe, that was able to provide him, in 1818, with a basis forhis career. By the terms
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