En este año en el que se conmemora el segundo centenario del nacimiento Ferenc Liszt (1811–1886), quien tanto habría de encandilar al público de los salones decimonónicos con sus fantasías y paráfrasis sobre motivos operísticos, resulta particularmente oportuna la publicación de esta grabación dedicada a uno de sus más ilustres predecesores en el cultivo de este género: Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778–1837). El programa del disco se centra en variaciones, popurrís y arreglos de temas de tomados de obras para la escena, tanto óperas como ballets, de Gluck, Mozart, Cherubini e Isouard, así como del propio Hummel, incluyendo la versión para piano solo de la Gran Fantasía sobre La trompa mágica de Oberón, op. 116, inspirada lejanamente en Weber. Se trata obviamente de obras de salón, ligeras e intranscendentes, pero de endiablado virtuosismo, para las que se necesitan, ante todo, unos deditos muy ágiles, y eso es de lo que anda sobrada la pianista japonesa Madoka Inui, la cual, en este su segundo registro hummeliano para Naxos, sabe una vez más resolver la papeleta con toda elegancia y solvencia.

Madoka Inui…plays very well. Good notes and recording.

To read the complete review, please visit American Record Guide online.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel war einer der originellsten Komponisten im Niemandsland zwischen Klassik und Romantik. Als Mozart-Schüler wusste er, was er der Formgebung schuldig war, als Kind seiner Ära schrieb er freilich auch programmatisch ausufernde Fantasien—die japanische Pianistin Madoka Inui hat einige davon vor zwei Jahren auf einer verdienstvollen CD der Vergessenheit entrissen. Nun präsentiert sie Hummel, der auch für die Entwicklung der pianistischen Technik bedeutsam war, als Schöpfer von Variationswerken über Opernthemen.

Hummel was a child prodigy, took lessons from Mozart for two years, was Haydn’s successor at Eisenstadt and both Liszt and Schumann tried to become pupils. As an adult his technical prowess at the piano was phenomenal and it is his sheer virtuosity which can get in the way of performances of his music.

Naxos are steadily accumulating discs of Hummel’s varied output and this disc by Japanese pianist Madoka Inui showcases Hummel’s piano fantasies based on operatic themes. Most of these are cast in variation form. Hummel seems to have been less concerned to evoke the operas concerned, and more interested in choosing a theme likely to be useful as the basis for spinning variations.

This fine Naxos release fills a gap between the pure virtuoso tradition of operatic paraphrases and potpourris on one hand, and the more ambitious treatments of preexisting material by Franz Liszt on the other. Although Naxos doesn’t claim them as world recording premieres, these pieces by Johann Nepomuk Hummel have surely seen precious few performances since they fell out of fashion in the middle of the 19th century. Hummel was a contemporary and sometimes a rival of Beethoven, and several of these pieces contain something of the way Beethoven had of taking comic material seriously. Consider the opening set of Variations on “Vivat Bacchus” from Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Op. 34/3, where Mozart’s comic treatment of the Turkish potentate exposed for the first time to alcohol gives birth to the very Beethovenian variation 9 (track 4). The Variations on a Theme from Gluck’s Armide, Op. 57, are similarly substantial, with a chromatic slow movement giving way to a contrapuntal finale. The Grand Fantasia on Oberons Zauberhorn (Oberon’s Magic Horn), Op. 116, was Hummel’s entry in a growing market of pieces based on Weber’s operas; Liszt, who was 18 when it appeared and already experimenting, may well have heard it and been influenced by it. The closest Hummel comes to the pure Romantic potboiler is the Potpourri No. 1 from the Opera Die Eselshaut (The Donkey Skin), Op. 58, but even this is a colorful, attractive set of pictorial pieces. Pianist Madoka Inui delivers fine performances, favoring crisp articulation over volume in music that was still written for fortepiano-like instruments; she handles the considerable technical challenges confidently. Add in good sound from a Viennese studio, and you have a release that effectively recovers a lost corner of the early 19th century.

The music on this disc falls easily on the ear, but as you might well imagine it’s a touch light on substance. These are the sorts of opera and ballet arrangements that the great 19th century virtuoso pianists such as Liszt and Thalberg made famous, but of course Hummel’s technique is, comparatively, somewhat underdeveloped, and seems more so as played (and recorded) on a Bösendorfer grand piano, with its characteristically rich bass and relatively shallow treble. That said, if mere pleasantry is enough, then there’s plenty to enjoy here.