Johann Nepomuk Hummel
By Frank Cooper
From The Musical Heritage Society Review 392 Vol. 11 No. 14 1987
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (14 November 1778 – 17 October 1837)
Nineteen years ago, mine was the privilege to create the first-ever Festival of Neglected Romantic Music (at Butler University, Indianapolis). What an exciting project it was! During my decade as its director, the Festival explored and re-premiered dozens and dozens of big works by such then-unplayed composers as Alkan, Bourgault-Ducoudray, David, Dreyschock, Ernst, Guiraud, Henselt, Herz, Joachim, Moszkowski, Napravnik, Paderewski, Pierne, Raff, Rheinberger, Rombert, Rubinstein, Servais, Sgambati, Spohr, Thalberg, Wieniawski, and many others. The one that almost got away was Hummel.
Pupil of Haydn, Mozart, Clementi, and Beethoven and teacher of Mendelssohn, Hiller, Henselt, and Thalberg, Hummel was a key figure in the development of romanticism. He created the most profuse and elaborate keyboard idiom before Liszt, set the stage for Chopin’s jewel-like ornamentation and bel canto melodic lines, wrote the era’s “bible” on piano technique, and composed reams of elegant, sometimes astonishingly brilliant music. I most wanted to revive one of Hummel’s concerti, which were so prophetic of Chopin’s, but the problem was that virtually no pianists then (or now, for that matter) had the right combination of head and heart, of technique and style to put the music across. Then a great artist, Jorge Bolet, came to my rescue with the iridescent magic of Hummel’s Concerto in A-flat major [Piano Concerto No.5 in A-flat major, Op.113] and swept us all away with a never-to-be-forgotten performance. Now, after all those years, other properly equipped pianists are giving the remarkable Mr. Hummel new life through recordings.
19 March 1975
Alice Tully Hall, New York
Hummel, Piano Concerto in A flat (Op. 113)
Early September 1975
Haydn Conference/Festival, Esterházy Castle, Eisenstadt, Austria
Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Concerto for piano and orchestra in A flat major op. 113
20 April 1976
Clowes Hall, Butler University, Indianapolis (9th Romantic Music Festival)
Hummel No.5 in A flat major, Sgambati in G minor Op.15 [introduced by JB in 1971]
Indianapolis Symphony/Oleg Kovalenko (1936, Kyiv - 2025)
29/30 April 1977
Music Hall, 1241 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio
Hummel, Piano Concerto in A flat major op. 113, Chopin, Andante Spianato & Grande Polonaise (piano only)
Cincinnati Symphony/Thomas Schippers (Music Director, who was ill and Carmon DeLeone took his place). JB's first performance with the CSO in 2 decades [?]
16 August 1978
Schloss Esterházy, Eisenstadt, Austria (Haydn Festival)
Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Concerto No.5 in A flat major op. 113
Don V. Moses / Eisenstadt Festival Orchestra
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