Search - Franz [Vienna] Schubert, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Robert Schumann :: Hummel, Schubert, Schumann: Piano Quintets

The Schubert/Hummel coupling is ingenious. Schubert wrote his famous Trout Quintet (piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass) for a group of friends who were playing Hummel's Quintet for the same combination. Schubert has, of course, far outshone Hummel; but Hummel, Mozart's favorite pupil, was a fine composer with traces of early Romanticism in his basically classical style. His Quintet is well worth hearing. If these performances, and those of the Schumann works, were superb, this set would be an amazing bargain. As it is, they're fairly good, and the set is a fairly good bargain. --Leslie Gerber