Stephen Hough - Hummel: Piano Concertos (1987)

The 150th anniversary of Hummel's death provides a timely spur to rescue these third and fourth of his half-dozen or so concertos from unwarranted neglect: they have, it's true, been recorded before (though not for 20 years), but previously only with damaging cuts. Even more than the piano sonatas, recently issued (Arabesque ABQ6564/6, 12/86), they illustrate the exuberant keyboard virtuosity for which Hummel was famous, and in the performance of which Stephen Hough scores a spectacular success in his record debut. He shows both delicacy and scintillating bravura without vulgar exhibitionism, and captures the ''purity and elegance'' which Czerny so praised in Hummel's own playing; and he is helped by Bryden Thomson's admirably alert accompanying and by exceptionally faithful, clean and well-balanced recording—which incidentally extends to over 66 minutes of music, even on LP.
Hummel's ideas, and his treatment of them, are often striking—note the soloist's unconventional first entry in both works—and though his form is orthodox (except for the absence of cadenzas), his orchestration is full of interest, as for instance the prominence of the quartet of horns in the Larghetto of the B minor Concerto. From the musicological point of view, part of the fascination of these works lies in their audible bridging between Hummel's teachers Mozart and Beethoven—with a solo kettledrum opening, and an echo of an Eroica theme, in the B minor—and (particularly in the florid traceries of the slow movements) his youthful admirer Chopin, and beyond him Liszt (who was taught by his pupil Czerny); but to the ordinary music-lover their outstanding qualities are their brilliance and melodiousness. In Stephen Hough's virtuosic hands, the coruscating final coda of the A minor Concerto is one of the most exciting things I've heard for years. Bravo!'