Johann Wilhelm Wilms
, born near Cologne, worked mostly in Amsterdam and was quite popular, even becoming known as the "Dutch
Beethoven
" at one time. He was nearly
's contemporary, but there the comparison pretty much ends; it's hard to find much that's Beethovenian in these post-Classical concertos, released here in the first of a pair of albums devoted to
Wilms
by fortepianist
Ronald Brautigam
and the
Koelner Akademie
under conductor
Michael Alexander Willens
.
was a pianist as well as a composer, and he structured these concertos to provide brilliant piano parts without losing the outlines of basic sonata forms.
Brautigam
's renditions are an attraction in this regard, even if they are a bit artificially pumped up by
BIS
' unidiomatic church acoustic. His fortepiano, apparently not identified in the booklet, is a powerful, ringing instrument, and his playing gives an idea of what would have gotten audiences excited as the modern piano really came into its own. The annotations by
Horst A. Scholz
are another plus. They are detailed enough to serve as a primary source for those interested in the music of the period. As for the music itself, it's certainly not
. It tends to hang onto the tonic and dominant before reluctantly lurching into harmonies slightly farther afield.
' style clearly developed between the
Concerto in E major, Op. 3
, written in 1796 and still ostensibly playable on a harpsichord, and the two later pieces, from the end of the 1800s decade.
wrote seven piano concertos in all, and lovers of
's era will certainly await the second volume of his concertos from these performers. ~ James Manheim