"In 1788 the ten-year old Hummel and his father embarked on an extensive concert tour of Europe. The little Johann Nepomuk had already received two years of music lessons from Mozart and had just made his debut as a concert pianist. Three years earlier the family had moved from Presburg (Bratislava, now the capital of Slovakia) to Vienna when the father accepted the position of conductor at the Theater auf der Wieden. At just seven years of age Johann had gone to live with Mozart and had made rapid progress, becoming very competent on the violin and piano. Master Mozart was frequently absent because of his tours to Prague and he eventually advised his pupil's father to take the boy on tour himself. While on tour Johann performed the works of his teacher. Via Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Scotland, the father and son arrived in London in 1792. Hummel's first performance there took place on the 5th of May and the 13 -year-old was received with great acclaim from an enthusiastic audience.
"This was probably the only period during which the three composers represented on this CD found themselves in the same place: Dussek, already famous as a pianist and composer; Hummel as a child prodigy; and Onslow, then only eight years old, who was taking music lessons from the composer Hüllmandel.
"In the year 1792 London was a bustling international city. The trade of exotic products from the colonies had led to prosperity that was reflected in the rise of the middle class. Along with new-found wealth, this group also assimilated the culture that had previously been the exclusive realm of the upper class. When the Revolution broke out in France, many musicians and artists sought refuge across the English Channel. Johann Ladislav Dussek was one of these.
"[...] The premiere of Dussek's 'Quintet in F minor' took place at the King's Theatre in 1799. Dussek himself played the piano, father and son Cramer played the violin and viola, a Mr. White played the cello, and the legendary bassist Dragonetti performed on the contrabass.
"After his marriage to Sophia Corri in 1792, Dussek became a partner in her father's publishing house. Neither father nor son-in-law had a great deal of business acumen and the company was declared bankrupt in 1800. Dussek had already fled London at the end of 1799 to escape his creditors. He left his wife and daughter behind there and would never return.
"The two remaining composers represented on this CD spent only a brief time in London. Johann Nepomuk Hummel returned to Vienna in 1793 and continued his musical studies with Albrechtsberger and Salieri. George Onslow returned to his parents in France in the same year. It is probable that he was only sent to his uncle in London to receive his early education. [...]
"[...] In 1802 Hummel had already been back in Vienna for ten years. He was no longer a child prodigy and as a man in his early twenties had yet to begin his career. He played in salons, gave lessons and slowly built up his connections. At that time he composed little, his opus consisted of only a few pieces for piano solo and some chamber music, not yet extending beyond opus 9.
"According to the article on Hummel in 'The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians', the 'Piano Quintet in E-flat minor, op.87' was written in 1802. This date is problematic because pianos at that time lacked the range necessary to perform this piece. The Viennese piano around 1800 had a range of 5½ octaves, while the quintet requires 6½. The problem of the range of the piano could be explained by proposing that Hummel composed the piece for an earlier instrument and revised it in 1822, when it was finally published, adapting it for the larger instruments then available. There remains yet another mystery: the title page reads 'Quintet in E-flat major' while the piece is actually composed in the minor mode. This could be the result of a copyists' misreading of the German key designations Es (E-flat major) and es (E-flat minor), or perhaps publishers thought that E-flat minor, with its six flats, would seem too difficult for prospective buyers. We will probably never know the real reason.
"At the time of the quintet's publication, Hummel was Kapellmeister at the court of Weimar. Between these periods in Vienna and Weimar, he followed Haydn for a short time as Kapellmeister at the court of Esterházy, but apparently disliked the position.
"He travelled frequently to the capital in 1814-15 to enjoy the festivities associated with the Congress of Vienna. It was here that Hummel achieved fame as the 'waltz composer'.
"In a group portrait painted by Antoine Maurin in 1844 entitled 'Galerie des compositeurs dramatiques modernes', we see George Onslow together with leading musicians Halevy, Meyerbeer, Spontini, Rossini, Berlioz, Donizetti, Berton, Mendelssohn, and Auber. A few years earlier Onslow had been granted membership to the prestigious Academie des Beaux-Arts, where he succeeded Cherubini in 1842.
"It had been around 40 years earlier that Onslow had travelled to London to take lessons from Johann Baptist Cramer. These early music lessons, first with Hilllmandel, then Dussek in Hamburg and later Cramer were not intended to prepare Onslow for a career as a professional musician but were simply part of an aristocratic education. George's grandfather was the first Earl of Onslow. Onslow's father had been forced to leave England after a family scandal and had continued his life as a nobleman in France. George was born there and grew up in the magnificent castle of Chalendrat in Clermont-Ferrand, where he followed his father as lord of the manor. At the age of 22 he discovered the operas of Méhul and decided then that music was his vocation. Onslow combined this double life of composer and chatelain in Auvergne but in the winter season he appeared frequently in Parisian musical circles. In the 1830s and 40s opera comique was the favorite musical genre in the French capital. Composers such as Meyerbeer, Rossini, and Donizetti were popular, alongside the salons where Liszt and Chopin presented their romantic bravura piano music. Although Onslow was included in Maurin's portrait beside the fashionable composers of the day, his musical style was very different from that of his colleagues. With his strict classical style, Onslow was unique in Paris. As a composer he concentrated on instrumental works, primarily chamber music: his opus includes 36 string quartets, 34 quintets and 3 piano quintets. Schumann described Onslow's quartets as worthy successors to those by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Onslow was accepted as a member of countless prestigious musical societies and was invited to renowned festivals.
"The 'Piano Quintet op. 76', written in 1846, is an arrangement of his 4th Symphony. An interesting feature of this work is the nickname of the Finale, 'Le Coup de Vent'. Although not mentioned by Onslow himself, this movement is suggestive of the Aeolian harp, an instrument popular in the 19th century. When placed by an open window, this instrument, consisting of strings in a box, would vibrate in the wind, producing an ethereal sound. Onslow might have been imitating this effect in the Finale with his use of rapid chromatic scales and a glass-like tinkling that can only be achieved with a special pedal effect available on some instruments of that period." (Riko Fukuda, tr. Felicity Goodwin. From the liner notes.)
Performers: Nepomuk Fortepiano Quintet
1. Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Piano Quintet In E-Flat Minor, Op. 87: I. Allegro E Risoluto Assai
2. Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Piano Quintet In E-Flat Minor, Op. 87: II. Menuetto-Allegro Con Fuoco
3. Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Piano Quintet In E-Flat Minor, Op. 87: III. Largo
4. Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Piano Quintet In E-Flat Minor, Op. 87: IV. Allegro Agitato
5. Jan Ladislav Dussek - Piano Quintet In F Minor, Op. 41: I. Allegro Non Troppo
6. Jan Ladislav Dussek - Piano Quintet In F Minor, Op. 41: II. Adagio Espressivo Non Troppo
7. Jan Ladislav Dussek - Piano Quintet In F Minor, Op. 41: III. Allegretto Ma Espressivo
8. George Onslow - Piano Quintet In G Major, Op. 76: I. Largo - Allegro
9. George Onslow - Piano Quintet In G Major, Op. 76: II. Scherzo: Allegro Vivace
10. George Onslow - Piano Quintet In G Major, Op. 76: III. Romanza: Andantino Molto Cantabile
11. George Onslow - Piano Quintet In G Major, Op. 76: IV. Finale 'Le Coup De Vent'
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