Last October Scarecrow Press in Maryland issued Johann Nepomuk Hummel: A Musician's Life and World, by Mark Kroll. It was complete news to me, for one, that Hummel produced so many choral compositions.

Does anyone on this forum have experience of performing any of these compositions, and if so, was the process worthwhile? I see from the catalogs of Chandos and Naxos that there are various CDs (which I am tempted to track down) devoted to Hummel's Mass settings; but there are also motets by the same composer, and I find myself wondering whether any of these motets would be within reach of a competent, unpretentious church choir. (The limited coverage of Hummel on www.cpdl.org gives few if any clues.)

What especially piqued my interest in this stuff is the fact that meat-and-potatoes liturgical repertoire from the early 19th century does not seem exactly abundant. (Which did not stop one elderly parishioner, at a very modest Sydney church where I played the organ years ago, from complaining because we had failed to perform the Beethoven Missa Solemnis ... ) So I would be interested to hear from anyone who has sung or conducted Hummel.