Concertante overture for chamber orchestra (op. 13c, 1952)
Chamber orchestra (1.1.1.1 - 1.1.0.0 - percussion, strings)
Duration: 7 minutes
Kleines Unterhaltungsorchester des SWF | Willi Stech
Title: "Concertante Ouverture" for small orchestra - Length: score 29 pages / 14 parts - Date: 12. VII. 1952 - Location: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Munich
Schott Music Score: CON 263 / ISMN 979-0-001-17426-8, parts: CON 263-50
With the splendour of a magnificent and cheerful concertante overture by Bertold Hummel, the orchestra enthusiastically committed itself to a piece which, while remaining within the boundaries of tonality, combines musical freshness with flourishing colourfulness.
Behr, Wolfgang Martin: Das kleine Unterhaltungsorchester des Südwestfunks unter der Leitung von Willi Stech. Untersuchungen zur Aufgabe und Bedeutung eines Rundfunkorchesters (1992). Printed: Baden-Baden 1994 (= Südwestfunk, Schriftenreihe Rundfunkgeschichte, Vol. 3).
Preface (Schott Music CON 263)
In 1952 Bertold Hummel was commissioned to compose a "Konzertante Ouverture" for the small entertainment orchestra of the Südwestfunk radio station. Willi Stech, pianist and director of the popular orchestra, endeavoured to interest talented young composers in the genre of light music, which was popular in Germany until the end of the 1960s, and found a musician in Hummel who, in addition to a few arrangements, wrote seven lively pieces for him between 1952 and 1958, all of which are originally orchestrated, artfully written and rhythmically refined. This series of works, which occupies a special place in Hummel's oeuvre, began with this overture, which was produced by the orchestra on 14 February 1953. After a concert performance in Wuppertal, a critic from the Rheinische Post wrote: " With the splendour of a magnificent and cheerful Concertante Overture by Bertold Hummel, the orchestra enthusiastically committed itself to a piece which, remaining within the boundaries of tonality, combines musical freshness with flourishing colourfulness.
Martin Hummel, September 2010