The Chamber Music at Schönbrunn title of this disc is technically accurate, but the chamber music heard here is hardly typical of Hummel's chamber output, some of which rivals Beethoven in its scope. The music here is altogether on the light side. Three of the four works involved are potpourris, and while the players may have experienced the same delight Leonard Bernstein found in one of these works ("it's a mad piece, but such fun!" he is quoted as saying in the booklet), they hold less appeal for the listener. They are ...
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The Chamber Music at Schönbrunn title of this disc is technically accurate, but the chamber music heard here is hardly typical of Hummel's chamber output, some of which rivals Beethoven in its scope. The music here is altogether on the light side. Three of the four works involved are potpourris, and while the players may have experienced the same delight Leonard Bernstein found in one of these works ("it's a mad piece, but such fun!" he is quoted as saying in the booklet), they hold less appeal for the listener. They are not simply works of a conventional framework that quote tunes of the day within that framework, but rather true medleys of tunes that careen from one to another heedless of changes in meter or tempo. The tunes are a real grab bag; Mozart is there, and so is Peter Josef von Lindpaintner. The booklet does not list them all (if indeed scholars have identified them), but it does sketch some key junctures. Aside from a few intriguing passages (such as one in the Grande Serenade en...
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