Hummel: Serenades 1+2; Potpourri, op 53.

HUMMEL: Serenades 1+2; Potpourri, op 53 Consortium Classicum/ Dieter Klocker MDG 301 1344--50 minutes

Until fairly recently, posterity's verdict on the music of Johann Nepomuk Hummel was largely a matter of indifference tinged with condescension. He was probably the first of the virtuoso pianist-composers; and his music was often dismissed as facile, showy, and shallow stuff, written to show off his technique. That's hardly reason enough to explain his neglect (if it were, we would not have as many Liszt recordings as we do). No--in Hummel's case, the man's reputation stood high in his lifetime, but it was eclipsed after his death by the memory of two contemporaries, Beethoven and Haydn.

Both of those gentlemen thought highly of Hummel's gifts. He also studied with Mozart, Clementi, and Salieri. In turn, Hummel's pupils included Thalberg, Henselt, Hiller, and Mendelssohn. The range and expressiveness of his piano writing directly influenced Liszt and Chopin, and his path-breaking activities as a virtuoso-who-also-composed paved the way for Grieg, Moszkowski, Saint-Saens and others who came later.

Now from the enterprising Dabringhaus und Grimm label comes a downright rollicking trio of "potpourris" that might also be subtitled "Hummel's--and Other's--Greatest Hits". So popular were these works in Vienna that each went through several sold-out printings, leaving Hummel in better financial condition than before.

The "potpourri" form was all the rage in 1820s Vienna, and Hummel was its acknowledged master. These were pastiche compositions intended to entertain aristocratic audiences by presenting clever re-workings of famous themes from the best-known operas of the day. Mind you, they were not written with ensembles of "gifted amateurs" in mind--the object was to invite professional musicians into one's parlor to play these works, while the well-heeled ...