The contemporaries of Johann Nepomuk Hummel held him in high regard both as a pianist and composer. He influenced the piano compositions of many others, including Beethoven, Schubert, and
Chopin. In the year of this recording by
Madoka Inui of his piano fantasies, he is enjoying a mini-revival, with a number of new recordings of his music on several labels. There are many moments when other composers come to mind in these fantasies, most obviously Beethoven and Schubert. Beethoven wrote his "Hammerklavier" Sonata in response to Hummel's Fantasie, Op. 18. The Hummel does have those large, unexpected contrasts of dynamics, textures, and articulation that Beethoven loved to use. Listeners have called certain passages in its opening Lento introduction "twentieth century sounding" because of their almost atonal quality. Its Larghetto movement has long, beautiful melodies with florid decoration, low trills as in Schubert's Impromptu, Op. 90, No. 3, and pulsing chords as in Schubert's Impromptu, Op. 90, No. 4. The Rondo, Op. 19, has Beethoven-like modulations through a number of keys in a short passage, and La Contemplazione has an almost brooding introspectiveness. Hummel based the Fantasie in G minor, Op. 123, on a number of songs of his own and by Sigismund Neukomm. Since those songs are unknown today, the fantasie doesn't have the same impact as the "Recollections of Paganini" Fantasie or the Fantasina on "Non più andrai" from The Marriage of Figaro later on the disc. However, the Op. 123 has more of what is expected from a showman pianist than the Paganini, which was written for a skillful amateur. In either case,
Inui has an easy confidence that makes these pieces sound very pianist-friendly, no matter what tricks Hummel employs. She plays very skillfully and brings out the beauty of Hummel's melodies. However, the music still seems to want a certain degree of edginess and drama to make it fully bloom. The sound of the recording is very good, but it seems as if her playing, and Hummel's music, would have even greater intensity and appeal heard live.