With one exception, which I shall come to, the works on this disc are all
early, before Hindemith found his mature idiom. They show him trying out
various styles and also from time to time, particularly in the quicker
movements, anticipating the vigorous neo-baroque with which he is most
associated.
Unfortunately the first work here is much the least interesting. The
opening
Capriccio is quite entertaining but the following
Phantasiestück is much too long, sounding like pastiche Schumann.
The final
Scherzo is even longer, and doesn’t settle to any
consistent style or material. The whole work is unbalanced and really should
be regarded as a piece of juvenilia.
Matters rapidly improve with the sonata for solo cello, an interesting
contribution to a medium which was quite popular with twentieth century
composers. By this time Hindemith has learnt his lesson and all the
movements are short, with the whole work lasting less than ten minutes. Two
pairs of faster movements surround a longer slow movement. The fast
movements are highly virtuosic while the slow one is chromatic in a Romantic
rather than expressionist way – Hindemith was still exploring the right way
for him. However, this is a fully assured work and a rewarding one.
The
Meditation is the exception to this group of otherwise early
works. It is a transcription by Hindemith himself from his ballet from
Nobilissima Visione (In a most noble vision), on the subject of St
Francis of Assisi, which dates from 1938. The complete ballet is rarely
performed, though there are two recordings of it, but the suite is one of
Hindemith’s most popular works, rightly, since it is very beautiful. This
piece exists in various arrangements, including for the violin and the viola
as well as the cello. It is nicely performed but a bit out of place in this
collection.
The sonata for cello and piano is the most substantial work here. The
booklet suggests it was inspired by memories of the First World War and also
by a poem of Walt Whitman (“O, now sing over there in your moor”) which he
had previously set as a song. Although listed as being in two movements, it
is effectively in three, since the second movement begins as a substantial
slow movement then moves to a faster final section. It begins with a driving
toccata, occasionally broken by passages of anguished lyricism. In the slow
section of the second movement march rhythms dominate in the piano while the
cello sings a threnody for the dead. The final section is a desperate chase.
The whole work is a disturbing and unsettling one, perhaps not completely
coherent but impressive nonetheless.
David Geringas is a player new to me, though he has an extensive
discography. He has a rich and fruity tone, a bow technique which keeps
every note alive for the whole of its length, an expressive speaking quality
to his sound and an astounding technique, which he certainly needs for the
faster passages in these works. Ian Fountain, with whom he has often worked,
is also expert but is hampered by the recording. It is shallow and forward,
making the piano sound close to a xylophone when in its highest register. It
is the kind of sound which was once thought particularly appropriate to
twentieth century music, but one had hoped things had moved on.
The disc is rather short measure and could have fitted in another
Hindemith cello work. There are two more of these: the variations on “A frog
he would a courting” (I learned this nursery rhyme as “A frog he would a
wooing go” but never mind) and the very important 1948 cello and piano
sonata in E Op. 38. Both of these have been recorded, in various
combinations with some of the works here, though if you want the cello
version of the
Meditation this is currently your only choice. I
would have preferred the 1948 sonata to the
Three pieces but I
repeat my admiration for the eloquent playing of David Geringas. There is a
helpful booklet in four languages.
Stephen Barber
