Naxos
2005
Hummel: Cello Sonata, Piano Trios, Piano Quartet
About This Album
This collection of a few of Hummel's chamber music pieces, although very well performed by fortepianist Susan Alexander-Max and friends on period instruments, demonstrates why it isn't better known or more frequently recorded (although at the time of this Naxos release, Salvatore Lagrassa and Voces Intimae had also just released Hummel's complete piano trios). These pieces are by no means uninspired in melody or mood. There is lyricism, often in the cello and frequently juxtaposed with a playful or pizzicato violin part. Moments of tension are brief and always relieved by much sunniness. The quartet and the Trio, Op. 35, are played with lots of spirit by Alexander-Max, violinist Micaela Comberti, violist Jane Rogers, and cellist Pal Banda. Even at their most animated, they are more Classically refined compared to the Trio, Op. 22. For that one, Simon Standage succeeded Comberti, who died from cancer less than a year after these recordings were made. Standage seems to add an extra dose of enthusiasm that Alexander-Max and Banda join in with. It doesn't bother him that in this work, as in all the others here, the bulk of the work goes to the piano. Which is why Hummel's piano chamber music isn't as popular as contemporary works by Beethoven or Schubert.
Track List

Piano Quartet In G Major, Op. Posth. 4 (only 2 Movements)
1.
2.
Piano Trio In G Major, Op. 35
3.
4.
5.
Sonata For Cello & Piano In A Major, Op. 104
6.
7.
8.
Piano Trio In F Major, Op. 22
9.
10.
11.