Stanley Hummel - Chopin Ballade No 1 in G Minor Op 23

STANLEY HUMMEL, a Juilliard graduate and pupil of Josef Lhevinne, performed in Carnegie and Town Halls, throughout Europe, at Saratoga Performing Arts and Tanglewood. His solo recordings on the ERSTA label were done in the late 1950's and early 1960’s. He passed away on March 18, 2005 at the age of 96, having lived most of his life in the Albany area.

Hummel was born on May 1st 1908 in Kingston NY and started piano at age 5. By age 12, he was practicing 5 to 7 hours a day and studying with Edward Morris. At age 13 he and his older brother Earle, calling themselves the “Marensky Brothers”, gave their first concerts in upstate New York and were broadcast worldwide by radio station WGY. After high school, Morris introduced Hummel to Josef Lhevinne, who quickly took Hummel under his wing, propelling him to receive an Artist Diploma in 1932 from The Juilliard School under full scholarship. From 1933 through 1936, Hummel was an Associate Instructor at The Juilliard School.

During the 1930’s and 1940’s, Hummel gave numerous Town Hall recitals, mostly as a soloist, but also as a duo with his brother Earle Hummel, now an accomplished violinist. In the ‘40’s, Hummel’s other performances included several Carnegie Hall recitals and concertos with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra under Morton Gould. Also during these years, Hummel had professorships at Adelphi College on Long Island, and the Emma Willard School in Troy, NY. In the 1950s and ‘60s Hummel recorded seven LPs on the ERSTA label, engineered by Peter Bartók, son of the composer.

In the later years, Hummel kept up his busy schedule, sometimes performing up to eight times per year. In 1971, he toured Europe, giving recitals in London (Wigmore Hall), Amsterdam, Brussels and Vienna. In the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, his highly successful two-piano duo with Linda (Cuneo) Laurent gave numerous performances, including one at Saratoga Performing Arts Center. In 1976, Hummel performed the Liszt E-flat Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Arthur Fiedler. Hummel’s final performance was on his 88th birthday at the College of St. Rose in Albany NY.

ERSTA 1040

Newspaper / Magazine Articles:

Photos:

Concertography:

[christophermesick]

I had the incredible privilege of being a student of Stanley Hummel when I was in high school, having studied with him from about 1977-1982. What I realize now is that he embodied a now bygone era of pianistic ability and expression that connected directly back to Rachmaninoff. He studied with Josef Llevine at Juilliard back in the 1930s. Llevine was a classmate of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin at the Moscow Conservatory. He and his wife, Rosina, moved to Berlin in 1907, faced with significant anti-semitism and the political turbulence of the Russian Revolution. They were declared enemy aliens in Germany during WWI, and became trapped there. But after the war, they were free to leave Germany, and emigrated to NYC in 1919, where Josef eventually taught piano at the Juilliard School. He was admired as one of the supreme piano technicians of his day, including by Vladimir Horowitz, and Rachmaninoff himself. But he never achieved their level of success. He died in 1944 (a year after Rachmaninoff). His wife Rosina assumed his teaching role at Juilliard after that, and went on to mentor some of the most famous musicians of the next few decades, including Van Cliburn, James Levine, John Williams, John Browning, Misha Dichter, and Garrick Ohlsson.

I heard first hand from Mr. Hummel of events that took place at Rachmaninoff’s house in Beverly Hills (he moved there about a year prior to his death because of failing health). These events were attended by Josef and Rosina Llevine, as well as at various times Vladmir Horowitz, Artur Rubenstein, and Sviatoslov Richter. He played for them on multiple occasions. He is the direct link to a pianism of the past that is difficult to describe.

Back when I was a student of his, I didn’t fully appreciate his direct connection to the “Russian School”, or his understated connection to the greatest pianists of the 20th century. And, while I did not pursue a career in music, and instead chose the path of medicine - Mr. Hummel remains one of the best overall teachers I have ever had. I realize now how much he taught me in the field of life, and I will forever remain grateful for his incredible influence.

Now I have rededicated myself to piano over the past 10 years or so. I maintain in my possession the ERSTA album of the 4 Chopin Ballades, as well as another of the Schumann Toccata, Carnaval, and Sonata in G Minor. He gave them to me when I was his student. I had intended to introduce them to YouTube, but somebody beat me to it. The piano world is all the better for it.

So, piano world, let me introduce you to Stanley Hummel - incredible artist, pianist with a connection to some of the greatest of all time, and one of the greatest teachers I have ever had. It was an emotional experience to listen again to recordings of his that I listened to over and over again as a teenager, and to re-experience the depth of emotion and awe that I witnessed firsthand whenever he played in my presence.