Here, for the first time in modern edition, is the fourth in our series of Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s superb arrangements of seven of Mozart’s piano concertos, the Concerto in C minor, K491. Any performer of Mozart’s piano concertos must have wondered how the sparsely notated sections would have been realized at the time, and no one is better placed to provide an answer than the composer’s own pupil.
Most notable with regard to performance practice are Hummel’s efforts to complete Mozart’s text in line with standard 18th-century convention, in passages where the original notation is sparse, or at least not fully comprehensive. His realizations, for example, shed light on such problematic questions as improvised embellishment and the treatment of Eingänge (lead-ins).
“Working with a variation on the standard piano quartet instrumentation, Hummel has cleverly (and with characteristic marketing shrewdness) provided a keyboard part that can be performed without the accompaniment of the other three instruments; but, with all four parts in action, he manages to recreate timbres with a close affinity to the original orchestral sonorities, including some distinctive wind colour.
These arrangements offer us invaluable (perhaps even unique) insights into both the aesthetic and technical approaches and priorities of this crucial transitional period.” (The Consort)
Music example (pdf)
We are grateful to Hochschule der Künste Bern for sponsoring these editions.