Johann Nepomuk Hummel - String Quartets (Delmé Quartet)

Information

Composer: Johann Nepomuk Hummel

• (01-04) String Quartet in C major, Op. 30 No. 1
• (05-08) String Quartet in G major, Op. 30 No. 2
• (09-12) String Quartet in E flat major, Op. 30 No. 3

Delmé Quartet
Galina Solodchin, violin
John Trusler, violin
John Underwood, viola
Jonathan Williams, cello

Date: 1991
Label: Hyperion
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDH55166

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Review

One doesn’t normally associate the name of Johann Nepomuk Hummel with the string quartet, for it was as a composer of virtuoso piano music that he established and consolidated his reputation. While there is a respectable amount of chamber music in Hummel’s output, most of it (including the so-called Septett militaire) employs the piano to one degree or another. So the reappearance of the op. 30 string quartets affords those of us who missed their initial appearance on Hyperion CDA 66568 an opportunity to audition material from the darker recesses of the repertoire composed by this colleague and occasional rival of Beethoven.

The op. 30 quartets—the only ones composed by Hummel—followed by less than three years the appearance of Beethoven’s half-dozen quartets that were published in 1801 as his op. 18. As annotator Peter Holman observes, “The first years of the new [19th] century saw the string quartet established as the most important genre of chamber music. This was the period when the medium began to be defined by its past.” That said, stylistically the Hummel quartets are the spiritual and artistic heirs to the tradition of Haydn and Mozart, but they focus less upon equality between the parts and tend to point to Hummel’s attempt to resurrect the contrapuntal style of the Baroque.

The advocacy of the Delmé Quartet (violinists Galina Solodchin and John Trusler, violist John Underwood, and cellist Jonathan Williams) is persuasive and artistically unwavering. Their well-defined and technically accomplished readings are filled with vitality and spirit and marked by a thoughtful but not calculated and otherwise fussy approach that might hamper the spirit of the music. Intonation and ensemble are right on target, adding further to the pleasure this writer gleaned from the disc.

While this is not Haydn, Mozart, or Beethoven, it is another of those interesting and pleasing reissues that are finding their way back into the catalogs and those who either missed or ignored it on its maiden voyage should strongly consider acquiring it this time around, for it will not disappoint.

-- Michael Carter, FANFARE

More reviews:
https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/hummel-string-quartets
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2005/Feb05/Hummel_quartets.htm
http://www.allmusic.com/album/hummel-three-string-quartets-op-30-mw0001367147
https://www.amazon.com/Hummel-String-Quartets-Op-1-3/dp/B0006OR166
https://www.amazon.com/Hummel-Three-String-Quartets-Op/dp/B000002ZQQ

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Johann Nepomuk Hummel (14 November 1778 – 17 October 1837) was an Austrian composer and virtuoso pianist, whose music reflects the transition from the Classical to the Romantic musical era. Hummel was taught and housed by Mozart for two years, and later studied with Albrechtsberger, Haydn and Salieri. His main oeuvre is for the piano, on which instrument he was one of the great virtuosi of his day. Later 19th century pianistic technique was influenced by Hummel, through his instruction of Carl Czerny who later taught Liszt. Hummel's influence can also be seen in the early works of Chopin and Schumann.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Nepomuk_Hummel

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The Delmé Quartet was conceived in a taxi travelling over London Bridge in 1962 by Granville Delmé Jones and Jurgen Hess (violins), John Underwood (viola) and Joy Hall (cello). Galina Solodchin joined the quartet in the late 1960s after the death of Granville Jones. John Trusler and Jonathan Williams joined the quartet in the mid-’70s. John Underwood is therefore the sole remaining foundermember. Over the past four decades the Delmé has appeared at most major European festivals. The quartet’s collaboration with a number of notable composers is well known, particularly that with the late Robert Simpson.
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/a.asp?a=A102

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