Hummel / Schubert: Piano Quintets

This recording presents a fascinating combination of chamber music works, distinguished by an unusual and expressive instrumentation of piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass: Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s “Quintet in C major” (Military Quintet) and Franz Schubert’s “Piano Quintet in A major,” his “Trout Quintet.” Remarkably, this is the world premiere recording of Hummel’s “Quintet.” It is a surprising discovery by the virtuoso double bassist Leon Bosch, artistic director of the mixed chamber ensemble I Musicanti, with whom he performs here. They are joined by Peter Donohoe, a prizewinner of the Tchaikovsky Competition and celebrated as one of the leading pianists of our time. Johann Nepomuk Hummel was a child prodigy who was taught initially by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and later by Muzio Clementi, Joseph Haydn, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, and Antonio Salieri. Hummel’s mastery as a pianist and his compositional personality, admired by Franz Liszt, are expressed in his two piano septets. In October 1829, Hummel completed his ‘Military’ Piano Septet No. 2. For its publication in Vienna the following year, he also prepared a piano quintet version, which was likewise arranged for the instrumentation of piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. The instrumentation of the septet—for piano, flute, clarinet, trumpet, violin, cello, and double bass—already included four of the five instruments, so the alternative version distributes the wind parts among four string instruments with an additional viola. This version is recorded for the first time on this release. Franz Schubert’s “Trout Quintet” was composed in 1819 as a commissioned work—some variations on the song “Die Forelle” (The Trout) were requested. Schubert did not just compose a series of five variations, but created a five-movement quintet in which the variations are included as the fourth movement of a work that has since become one of the best-known and most beloved in the chamber music repertoire.