Hummel / Fukuda / Polman - Piano Quintets Op. 74 & 87 [CD]

Lively and colourful period-instrument accounts of pioneering works in the genre that later gave us masterpieces by Schubert, Schumann and Brahms. As a pupil of Mozart and contemporary of Beethoven, Hummel was esteemed for the elegance of both his playing and his music. His tone was clear and pure, his touch accurate, equal and refined, and Goethe is said to have remarked that 'Hummel handles the piano as Napoleon handles the world.' The opus numbers of these appealing quintets are misleading. The piano quintet had barely been invented as a genre - it's principal forebears being the piano quartets of Mozart - when Hummel wrote this powerful E flat minor piece in 1802, later catalogued as Op.87 when he adapted it 20 years later for a piano with a larger range. Thus the piece itself belongs to his early period, much more Classical and Mozartian in manner than the powerful Op.74 which opens with a powerful D minor statement and continues in turbulent fashion as a work belonging to 1815, by which time the composer had achieved both fame and security. A quartet of Dutch string players, experienced in the early-music scene, forms the core of the Nepomuk quintet, named after the composer on this album; they are joined by the pianist Riko Fukuda, who contributes an authoritative essay on Hummel and his piano quintets to the booklet. When this recording of the Op.87 Quintet was first released in 2008, it received an enthusiastic welcome from Fanfare magazine: 'This is a very valuable release... The manner in which all five musicians construct musical phrases throughout is quite impressive. And their sound blends superbly... The refinement with which these musicians rediscover this relatively unknown music is simply astonishing... The sound of this recording is quite impressive too; the level of detail is amazing, and the spatial depth is compelling.'