It may have been
Chopin who consigned the music of
Aloys Schmitt to obscurity when he delivered the classic burn, writing that "he is over forty and composes eighty-year-old music."
Schumann was only slightly more favorable, opining that
Schmitt had a "collateral relationship" with
Hummel, no great accomplishment by the 1830s when at least one of these works was composed, but it may be that
Schmitt deserves another look. The
Piano Concerto No. 2 in D minor, Op. 34, heard here is the stronger of the pair of concertos, with an inventively structured opening movement: an explosion of Beethovenian intensity during the orchestral exposition is picked up and developed by the solo part. That concerto, in general, is more harmonically adventurous than the first one, and the virtuosity of its solo part is effectively coordinated with the structure. That's true even in the
Rondo brillant, Op. 101, composed in 1834. This has more meat than the title would suggest and is the most technically challenging of the three works. The fact that
Schmitt had racked up 100-plus opus numbers by that time indicates that his music was at least worth investigating, and it is no surprise that this album, the 81st entry in
Hyperion's "Romantic Piano Concerto" series, hit best-seller charts in the summer of 2022. It would be hard to imagine more effective performances than those by the
Ulster Orchestra and pianist
Howard Shelley, conducting from the keyboard; the orchestra is of an ideal size, and
Shelley's readings have energy and flair in these works, all of which are receiving their recorded premieres. Recommended to all lovers of the Romantic piano. ~ James Manheim
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