Violin Concerto in G

Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778 -1837) - Mozart pupil, virtuoso pianist and composer – is one of the few contemporaries of Beethoven whose concertos invite direct comparison with his own. Like Beethoven, Hummel also composed a large-scale violin concerto but this work, unlike Beethoven’s masterpiece, has until recently remained completely unknown. The sole-surviving copy of the work, a score which is preserved in the British Library, presents us with something of a problem. At first glance, it appears as if the work were never completed although all the violin solo part is extant, in two different hands, Hummel’s and that of an amanuensis. Allan Badley believes that Hummel may have completed the work but abandoned it in the process of its revision; this would readily explain why the sections in the hand of the amanuensis lead on occasion into fully scored phases of the work. Be that as it may, the sole-surviving source was incomplete and unperformable. There are large sections in the outer movements where there is no orchestra part at all and Gregory Rose has added all these parts as well as editing the complete concerto and composing cadenzas for the first and last movements. Like many concertos of the period it is composed for small orchestra, omitting clarinets, trumpets and timpani. The solo part is certainly very virtuosic and invites interesting comparisons with the composer’s works for solo piano and orchestra. Hummel’s Violin Concerto is one of the most fascinating works to have been rediscovered in recent years and it ranks among the most impressive works of its kind from the first decades of the 19th century.