Ronald Brautigam fortepiano Kölner Akademie / Michael Alexander Willens

BIS

Johann Wilhelm Wilms (1772-1847) was a near contemporary of both Beethoven and Hummel but outlived them both by 20 and ten years respectively. Based primarily in Amsterdam for most of his life (though born in a village near Köln), at the height of his fame in the 1810s he was regarded locally as the ‘Dutch Beethoven’. He gave the Dutch premieres of several piano concertos by Mozart, Beethoven and others, and was a good enough flautist to play in a number of orchestras on a regular basis.

As a composer, the ‘Dutch Beethoven’ tag does Wilms few favours with hindsight. True, there are some decidedly Beethovenian turns of phrase in his C major concerto (1807), including the main theme and the Apollonian cast of the concluding rondo. However, Wilms’ style was ultimately rooted in Mozart, as was Beethoven's, and there's the rub: Beethoven was able to move beyond his models to create something new and wholly his own. Wilms seems content to stay within the expressive world and formal templates of the late 18th century. Even the music box-like finale of the D major concerto (a Rondo alla polacca) does not go beyond high jinks.

Ronald Brautigam niftily gets his fingers around Wilms’ complex passagework, accompanied deftly and sensitively by the Kölner Akademie under conductor Michael Alexander Willens. There is much to entertain here even though each work has at least one movement that outstays its welcome. The recorded sound is superb, as usual from BIS.