Hello

 

As promised yesterday I attach pdf files of the Hummel festival I am organising to celebrate 10 years of organising such events. Mark Kroll, author of the first English language biography will be talking and playing, other pianists are Andrew Brownell, who won second prize at the Leeds International Piano competition in 2006 playing the F sharp minor sonata, Op.81 andd has played the Piano Concerto Op.85 in Bratislava will be performing Op.89 for the first time, Benjamin Frith, who has superb Naxos recordings of the Weber and Field concertos on Naxos will be performing Op.85 for the first time (he is due to perform it in Poland in 2010, and Madoka Inui, whose Naxos recording of Hummel's Fantasies is revelatory, will be performing them and a number of chamber music works.

 

A film about Hummel will be made around the event, Stephen Hough and Howard Shelley have agreed to be interviewed.

 

The piano concertos will be performed in chamber versions especially commissioned (string quintet plus flute), a format that works extremely well in our music salon - and was common in the 19th century. We will be publishing full scores and parts for the concertos in chamber and full score (Op.85 for the first time I believe.) I have talked to Andrew about him creating definitive editions.

 

I will also be making available shortly a pdf file, Hummel, his life, his personality, his music. This is a format that I have used in four published books entitled Discovering Classical Music covering 40 composers. Hummel is the 41st because there has only been adequate English source material since Mark Kroll's book.

 

Let me make my position clear - you don't have to agree with it. 1770-1830 was the great age of classical music. Four prolific geniuses have dominated that period for us today for a variety of reasons that I will not go into, but principally that market forces of quality do not apply. Hummel is probably the leading Deuxieme Cru to these 4 Premiere Crus, for the quality and widest range of genres (excluding symphonies of course). He led an amazing life.

 

He was a forgotten composer, no music scores, no recordings until the Trumpet Concerto was rediscovered around 1960. Since then, due to recording companies his works have emerged on the market but typically are only bought by the "anorak/connoisseur/ specialists" (I include myself in the anaraks!)

 

Current situation:

1. Enough of his music has been recorded for people to make a judgement on the composer.

2. Many important scores have not been published and lie buried in the British Museum or Staatsbibliotek in Berlin. Performances are thus inhibited/prevented.

3. Music schools do not introduce Hummel's works to young musicians, so the majority of musicians, including greaty artists, have never played Hummel in their life. When we performed the Hummel Quintet last year, for the 75-year-old pianist (well known) it was the first time he had played Hummel.

4. Most music-lovers have not heard of Hummel or his music, but there are now, thanks mainly to recordings, a growing band of admirers.

5. Promoters will not put on Hummel because he is unknown to most of the box office outside Weimar and Bratislava.

 

The challenge 25 years ago was to bring the music out of the libraries and museums to enable Hummel's work to be heard.

The challenge today is to make more people aware of Hummel's music. We can all do something about that. Think about it. Anything from giving CDs as presents, contacting classical radio stations with requests (with care that the music is immediately appealing like the opening of op.85 piano concerto, or the Te Deum,)

 

Or for a unique expereince, come and join me near Bordeaux next May.

 

Best wishes

Ian Christians

PS you can download the software to read pdf files from