Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Variations for oboe & orchestra in F major, Op. 102, Diana Doherty (oboe), Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Werner Andreas Albert (conductor)
Adagio – Theme (Allegretto) – Variation 1 – Variation 2 – Variation 3 (Cantabile e un poco sostenuto) – Variation 4 – Tempo di Valse, non troppo Presto
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (14 November 1778 – 17 October 1837) was an Austrian composer, performer, and teacher who definitely achieved international stature, and though music-lovers of today are aware of much more than just his name, he still tends to be dismissed as second-rate. A few minutes actually spent listening to his music dispel this attitude right away. No, he was not another Mozart or Beethoven: very few artists in any generation are endowed with that degree of genius. Even with a lesser spark of genius, though, he left a legacy well worth reinvigorating.
“His output was extraordinarily varied and included numerous operas, cantatas, masses, chamber music and several concertante works besides those for the piano. The most obviously missing genre is that of the symphony, very possibly stemming from his friendly yet ardent rivalry with Beethoven, whose monumental symphonic achievement deterred Hummel from writing anything with which he might be ungainfully compared. But this oboe work of Hummel's has survived, whereas Beethoven's oboe concerto, if it were indeed fully composed, supposedly perished in a fire at his publisher's; and so in the absence of what might have been the greatest oboe concerto of the early Romantic period, oboists today rely on works like Hummel's Variations for oboe and orchestra, now known as his Op. 102. The autograph score for this work is now in the possession of the British Museum and, like the Bellini work, has basically come into circulation only since the 1960s. It is a fine example of late Classicism rather than a truly Romantic work, with ornate and virtuosic melodies spinning over an embroidered homophonic accompaniment.” (by Lyle Chan, notes for album)

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