Hummel, Weber & Mendelssohn - Works for Piano & Orchestra | Berlin Classics 0301762BC

Hummel, Weber & Mendelssohn - Works for Piano & Orchestra

£13.25

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Label: Berlin Classics

Cat No: 0301762BC

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Orchestral

Release Date: 14th May 2021

Contents

About

Matthias Kirschnereit and the hr-Sinfonieorchester under Michael Sanderling have compiled a compelling, captivating programme of music from the last days of the Classical era, on the cusp of the Romantic. This “half-way house” – in the best possible sense – accommodates the compositions of Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Carl Maria von Weber and Felix Mendelssohn. On his latest album, the soloist makes the boldness of this musical venture audible: “I was attracted by the fact that these rare jewels were created at a time of change, of new horizons.”

The album opens with the A minor Piano Concerto by Mozart pupil Hummel, whose “expansive, symphonically conceived orchestral exposition is still thoroughly indebted to the model of such works as Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, only to shift – in the style of the Romantic soloist vehicle exemplified by Chopin’s concertos – to the piano as the centre of attention,” explains Kirschnereit. Hummel’s op.85 must surely have been modelled on Frédéric Chopin’s First Piano Concerto: “The bel-canto-like, elegant coloraturas of the first two movements reference Chopin’s inventive piano style. We know that Robert Schumann engaged intensively with this concerto; furthermore, his only piano concerto is also in A minor, its intermezzo-ish middle movement in Hummel’s key of F major ... Hummel was a superstar of his time, a charismatic, generous individual – and he supported Beethoven financially from time to time.”

Carl Maria von Weber finished his F minor Concert Piece for piano and orchestra on 18 June 1821, on the morning of the triumphant premiere of his opera Der Freischütz in Berlin. “His ‘Freischütz’ is omnipresent,” says Matthias Kirschnereit. “I keep hearing Agathe’s arias, scenes in the Wolf’s Glen, jubilant choruses! The work is in advance of its time, it is all of a piece and yet like a free fantasia.”

And so to Felix Mendelssohn: “Weber’s Konzertstück again serves as the model for his Capriccio brillant. He played it often, it was part of his core repertoire. Like the Weber concert piece, it is inspired by nature: I imagine scenes from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ or his ‘Walpurgisnacht’. Joy and jubilation, despair and inner turmoil find expression in both composers with extremely fast tempos: youthful genius, bold bravado!”

The teamwork with Sanderling and the symphony orchestra of Hesse Radio can only be described as an act of providence. “This session rounded off the Corona year with an exhilarating highlight.” And so may this music, which conjured up the spirit of a new era with defiant optimism two centuries ago, give us too a future to look forward to in our own times.

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