Three composers from one family meet on the threshold of the twentieth to the twenty-first century. At the center of this CD presentation are works by Bertold Hummel (1925-2002). Compositions by the composer's two sons, Cornelius Hummel (*1957) and Stefan David Hummel (*1968), form a counterpoint with direct or, as the case may be, indirect references to Bertold Hummel's musical language. The concept of this compilation concentrates almost exclusively on music for string instruments. Two exceptions go beyond the scope of this conceptual framework: the Concertino for bassoon and strings, op. 27b, by Bertold Hummel, and the composition Behind the Quietness by Stefan David Hummel, in which a string quartet is joined by a flute and a clarinet.
Bertold Hummel was born on 27 November 1925 at Hüfingen, Baden. From 1947 to 1954 Hummel studied composition with Harald Genzmer and violoncello with Atis Teichmanis at the Freiburg College of Music. From 1954 to 1956 there followed concert tours as composer and cellist. In 1955 he married the violinist Inken Steffen with whom he had six sons. From 1956 to 1963 Hummel was choirmaster-organist in Freiburg, worked as a freelance contributor to the Southwest German Radio (SWF), Baden-Baden, and in 1963 was appointed instructor of composition at what was then the State Conservatory in Würzburg. From 1963 to 1988 he directed the Würzburg Studio for New Music, and was named professor in 1974. He was president of the Würzburg College of Music from 1979 to 1987 (then its honorary president from 1988), and a member of the Bavarian Academy of the Fine Arts from 1982. He held guest lectures and traveled to performances of his works in Europe, the USA, South America, Canada, the Commonwealth of Independent States (former Soviet Union), Japan, Australia, Egypt, and South Africa. Bertold Hummel died on 9 August 2002 in Würzburg. Awards: 1956 Scholarship of the Federal Association of German Industry, 1960 Composition Prize of the City of Stuttgart, 1961 Robert Schumann Prize of the City of Düsseldorf, 1968 Scholarship of the Cité des arts international de Paris, 1988 Culture Prize of the City of Würzburg, 1996 Friedrich Baur Prize of the Bavarian Academy of the Fine Arts, 1998 Culture Prize of the German Catholics.