These arrangements of three of Mozart's famous symphonies were made in 1823 and 1824, when Johann Nepomuk Hummel was kapellmeister at the Weimar court. But he could probably have executed them at any time during his career: Hummel was Mozart's star student, and he had these works in his head like few others of his era. The "flute, violin, cello, and piano" designation used on this album doesn't quite give the flavor: the ensemble is of the type represented in Haydn's folk song arrangements, with the piano carrying the bulk ...
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These arrangements of three of Mozart's famous symphonies were made in 1823 and 1824, when Johann Nepomuk Hummel was kapellmeister at the Weimar court. But he could probably have executed them at any time during his career: Hummel was Mozart's star student, and he had these works in his head like few others of his era. The "flute, violin, cello, and piano" designation used on this album doesn't quite give the flavor: the ensemble is of the type represented in Haydn's folk song arrangements, with the piano carrying the bulk of the melodic load and the flute and strings filling out loud passages or providing antiphonal effects. This said, reducing a mature Mozart symphony to these dimensions is no mean feat, and there are plenty of clever touches in, say, the contrapuntal textures of the main thematic group of the first movement of the Symphony No. 40, where the piano has to do the passagework and be transitioned into it. The arrangements also give insight into certain details of ornamentation and...
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![Hummel/ Mozart: Symphonies 38-40 [Uwe Gridd, Friedemann Eichhorn, Martin Rummel, Roland Krüger] [Naxos: 8572841]](https://www3.alibris-static.com/cover/n81586oysbf_t.jpg)
