The name of Johann Peter Emilius Hartmann (1805-1900) crops up far more than his music does. The most distinguished nineteenth-century member of the great Danish Hartmann musical dynasty (the family originated in Silesia before moving to Denmark in the mid 1700s; Niels Viggo Bentzon is its pre-eminent twentieth-century scion), his works ranged from opera and ballet to instrumental pieces, even in his lifetime overshadowed somewhat by those of his son-in-law Niels Gade, a judgement of history that lasts to this day. This is not altogether just, although one can understand how it has come about. Hartmann’s muse was not eye-catchingly sensational; his oeuvre was well-crafted and traditional, charming without romantic excess, and the works recorded here are typical of his style.
Of the three sonatas, the Second (1846) is the best; the First (1826) is an apprentice piece, the short Third (1886) a touch inconsequential, as to be blunt is the Suite (1864). The second CD is therefore a bit of a let-down not just for its short playing time; Da Capo would have done better to drop the Suite and issue the Sonatas and Fantasi-Allegro on one disc. It is all nicely played, but the recording is a touch two-dimensional.'