A different focus: Timothy Ridout in Mozart & Hummel with Academy of St Martin in the Fields plus Rossini & a Weber symphony

Hummel, portrait by Joseph Willibrord Mähler, c. 1814

Rossini: String Sonata No. 1, Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante in E flat, Hummel: Potpourri Op. 94, Weber: Symphony No. 1; Timothy Ridout, Tomo Keller, Academy of St Martin in the Fields; Church of St Martin in the Fields
Reviewed 26 June 2026

Mozart's violin and viola concertante work in context of music written within the following 40 years including Hummel's wonderfully engaging concertante work for viola 

Johann Nepomuk Hummel was very much at the centre of things during the later Classical era. Some 22 years younger than Mozart, Hummel was something of a prodigy, had lessons from Mozart, Salieri and Haydn, was friends with Beethoven and played in Beethoven's orchestral works, whilst Schubert dedicated three late piano sonatas to him. Haydn recommended him to take over Haydn's responsibilities at Prince Esterházy's Eisenstadt estate.

His music could be forward looking and he would have an influence on the music of Mendelssohn and Chopin. Hummel's focus was the piano, including eight concertos [it is well worth investigating Stephen Hough's recording of two concertos on Chandos] so it is ironic that nowadays he is best known for his Trumpet Concerto.

For their final concert of the season at St Martin in the Fields on 26 June 2025, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, leader Tomo Keller, joined forces with viola player Timothy Ridout for a programme centred around Hummel's Potpourri (Fantasy) for viola and orchestra written in 1820. There was also Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E flat for violin and viola (with Keller and Ridout) written in 1779, Rossini's early String Sonata No. 1 in G major from 1804 and Weber's Symphony No. 1 in C from 1806. 

It was a programme that placed Mozart's piece in an entirely different context yet one that made complete sense. All the works in the programme was written within roughly a 40 year period. Hummel's Potpourri quotes opera by both Mozart and Rossini, whilst Weber was not only Mozart's wife Constanze's cousin but the young Weber admired and was influenced by Mozart.

We began with Rossini's String Sonata No. 1 in G major, written when he was just 12 for the quirky line-up of two violins, cello and bass, originally for his patron and family to play. These remain delightful works for the way the young Rossini was already able to make the melody line sing, but also for his chutzpah in avoiding counterpoint and for giving the contrabass a far bigger role than usual, leading to some real comedy moments.

The opening movement was very much based around the singing line of the first violins, though the cellos had their moments too. Here and throughout the work, the musicians played with charm and grace, bringing lightness to the music and making it apparently effortless. The lyrical beauty of the slow movement was offset by some comedy growling from the contrabass, but then the whole thing got remarkably perky as if young Rossini could not stay serious for too long. We ended with the lively bounce of the finale.

Timothy Ridout (Photo courtesy of Academy of St Martin in the Fields)

Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante was his last string concerto. Written in 1779 we don't know that much about the work as the manuscript has disappeared, but it is markedly different from the Violin Concertos and Mozart seems to have been assimilating influences from the Mannheim school and of course Karl Stamitz (who trained in Mannheim with his father) had written a viola concerto earlier in the 1770s.

The opening movement began with real energy and impulse from the orchestra, becoming vibrant and urgent as the soloists entered (though they had both been playing the orchestral parts). Keller and Ridout both brought a matching style and vigour to their performance, completing each other's phrases in the most satisfying way, at times almost falling over each other like an old married couple (surely the best model for this relationship) and there was both vigour and delicacy in their joint cadenza. The slow movement began with the affecting violin melody over throbbing wind, before the soloists took it over and there was a lovely contrast between the two soloists. Keller's violin tone was elegant with a fine-grained singing line, whilst Ridout's viola was richly mellow, a chestnut quality to his singing. The programme notes did not say whether Ridout was playing his viola tuned up a semi-tone (to brighten the tone) as was originally done, but perhaps modern violas do not need this. The finale was all vitality and vigour, with the soloists again answering each other.

Throughout the performance we sensed that all the performers were invested in the work, enjoying themselves and you sensed the ensemble matching the youthful vigour that Ridout brought to the piece.

After the interval we turned to Hummel's Potpourri (Fantasy) for viola and orchestra, which was written for the Dresden court viola soloist Anton Schmiedl. There seemed to be no particular reason for stringing together 'Là ci darem la mano' from Don Giovanni, 'Se vuol ballare' from Le nozze di Figaro, 'O, wie will ich triumphieren' from Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and 'Di tanti palpiti' from Tancredi (and those were the tunes that I recognised), so perhaps we have to assume that the operas were popular in Dresden at the time!

Hummel's approach was similar to that of Chopin in his piano concertos (and Chopin's first concerto dates from just ten years later) with big orchestra tuttis and then discreet accompaniment for the soloist so here we started with dramatic orchestral chords then Ridout's mellow, singing viola came in with 'Là ci darem la mano'. There was little development, each melody was decorated and then we moved on, never staying in one place for long and Hummel using the different melodies to change the mood. The most startling was Osmin's rage aria from Die Entführung where the viola made it sound very different indeed. We moved from elegant melodies, to delicate viola figurations over swaying strings, to the final rather perky tune which was the excuse for virtuoso passagework. Ridout and ASMF gave the work a truly convincing performance, all the performers were wonderfully engaged with the work whilst Ridout's bravura passages had a nice mix of style and showing off. They were having fun, yet the piece was never placed in quotation marks, it was enjoyment for its own sake.

For the final work in the programme we moved to Bad Carlsruhe (which is now Pokój in Poland). This was the seat of the music loving Duke Eugen of Württemberg and 20-year-old Weber was the music director. He wrote his First Symphony for the court, and even featured the Duke's instrument, the oboe. This was 1806, Weber's cousin by marriage, Mozart, had only been dead 15 years and we can hear the influence of the composer on Weber, yet we can also hear the stirrings of the Romantic movement and there were suggestions of early Mendelssohn in the music. The opening Allegro began with a dramatic unison, before the music became quiet and intense. The performance was urgent and vital, there was no sense of the orchestra dismissing the music as lightweight. There was a restlessness to the writing, Weber never let things settle and the development had the feel of an operatic ensemble. The Andante began rather soberly, before moving on to a rather touching melody. Again there was a restlessness to the material, with Weber keeping changes going and the whole movement felt more like the prelude to something that did not happen. The Scherzo was vigorous and vibrant, the perky energy contrasting with the singing oboe line in the middle section. The finale had the vivid energy of a dance movement, rushing headlong with plenty for the brass to do. Weber only had two trumpets and two horns, but he certainly made them work.

Weber's Symphony No. 1 is a fascinating work that gives us insight into the young composer. Though he was something of a prodigy, it would be some time before he managed to his real form. The Clarinet Concertos would not come for another five years, and it would be 1821 before Der Freischütz premiered.

St Martin in the Fields is not an ideal venue, there was some minimal disturbance from the buskers outside who were doing a roaring trade on the fine evening. But it is suitably intimate, enabling us to hear the Mozart and Hummel in a venue that was probably a lot closer in size to the original venues.

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