Johann Nepomuk Hummel
(14 November 1778 – 17 October 1837) was an Austrian composer and virtuoso pianist.
His music reflects the transition from the classical to the romantic musical era.
Piano Concerto in A flat major, Op.113
I. Allegro moderato – 00:00
II. Romanze. Larghetto con moto – 17:24
III. Rondo a la Spagnola. Allegro moderato – 22:56
Nikolaus Lahusen (piano), Südwestfälische Philharmonie, Hiroshi Kodama (conductor)
Jongdo An & 12 Young Virtousi
11.November 2018, IBK Hall of Seoul Arts Center
Hummel was born in Bratislava (then Pressburg), Slovakia. Young Johann's first musical studies came on the violin at the behest of his father, a player of string instruments himself, and director of the local Imperial School of Military Music. By the age of five Hummel could play the violin with proficiency. But he would abandon it in favor of the piano, on which he developed an astonishing technique by age six.
Johann Nepomuk Hummel was a pupil of Mozart, a protégé of Haydn, a friendly rival of Beethoven, and renowned throughout Europe as one of the greatest pianists of his day, a sought-after teacher who instructed some of the most distinguished 19th-century virtuosi, the author of an influential treatise on the art of pianism, and himself the composer of over three hundred works covering all musical genres (apart from the symphony).
Though not a symphonist (perhaps not wishing to compete in that arena with the undoubted genius of his contemporary Beethoven), Hummel had great skill with the orchestra, as it is proved with his many concertante works, among them concertos for piano, piano and violin, bassoon, mandolin, violin (unfinished, completed by conductor - composer Gregory Rose). Haydn's recommendation of Hummel for the post of Konzertmeister at the court of Prince Esterhazy was the beginning of eight turbulent years at Eisenstadt. Fiercely independent, Hummel found fitting in with the manners and politics of the court difficult, and yet this was a very productive time.
Of his eight piano concertos the first two are early Mozartesque compositions (S.4/WoO 24 and S.5) and the later six were numbered and published with opus numbers (Opp. 36, 85, 89, 110, 113, and posth.)
Due to a rising number of available recordings and an increasing number of live concerts across the world, his music is now becoming reestablished in the classical repertoire.