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Paul HINDEMITH (1895-1963)
Tanzstücke op.19 (1920) [13:44]
In einer Nacht op.15 (1919) [22:49]
Klaviersonate Nr. 3 (1936) [18:12]
Christian
Seibert (piano)
rec. KvB Saal (WDR), 4-6 October 2005 CPO 777
171-2 [55:06]
Trying
to find out if this attractively-presented Hindemith recital
was likely to be part of a ‘complete piano music of’ I visited
the CPO (JPC) site, and was intrigued to see under the “Suitably
for this we recommend to you also” listing three unexpected
names: Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758), Carl Davidoff
(1838-1889), and Samuel Scheidt (1587-1654). Quite how this
distinguished trio’s style and idiom relate to that of Paul
Hindemith I’m not sure: such things do however keep your
lonely reviewer chuckling mildly in the depths of the night.
Born
in 1975, Christian Seibert is alas way past the ‘young talent’ stage
of his career. Turn on the radio in Holland these days and
you are lucky if the titanic Liszt Sonata you are hearing
has been played by anyone beyond their teens, or so it seems.
Seibert has a wide range, performing not only as a soloist,
but with orchestras and for a great deal of the time as a
chamber music pianist, something which I always consider
gives added value to a player’s breadth of view in all aspects
of music-making. Seibert’s Hindemith is in no way underplayed,
his opening Tanzstücke might arguably even be considered
a little on the brash side, but with his subtle voicings
and sensitivity to dynamics you can sometimes almost imagine
a pair of string players creeping in unnoticed from the wings,
and creating a whole new set of pieces.
Hindemith’s Tanzstücke are
a mixture of elements, mostly quite pithy, with only the
central ‘Moderately fast’ having some of that Martinů-like
jazz feel. The 1920s dance music is present in a kind of
parody at times, but Hindemith’s serious character means
that works employ what Alexander Saier calls “the sonerous-rhythmic
contrast effect” in his booklet notes for the CD. Christian
Seibert adopts this earnest sensibility, but the music takes
off from the start with punchy articulation and some rousing
pianism which could in the opening ‘Mässig schnell’ easily
take on a feeling of aversion therapy, but which ultimately
turns into a convincing dance with more than a little Bartók
in its blood. The same is true of the lively second piece,
with parallel intervals and some rhythmic and harmonic tricks
which keep the listener guessing to the end. Seibert keeps
us on our toes with plenty of emphasis on the nervy character
of these pieces. Shostakovich’s Preludes sometimes spring
to mind, even Stravinsky in the fifth work. The fourth piece, Pantomime however
creates the effect of variations, elaborating on themes from
the other dances and pointing out the theatricality of Hindemith’s
approach to these and other piano works – something which
crops up again in the 3rd Sonata.
In
einer Nacht bears the romantic
subtitle ‘Dream and Experiences’ and might be expected
to possess a certain amount of sentimentality. Indeed,
its quiet opening and references to opera make a welcome
contrast to the driving energy of the Tanzstücke.
While Hindemith adopts an impressionistic persona in terms
of atmosphere, there is no sense in which pianistic display
fills in details which can, and are, left to the imagination.
This ‘essence of’ sometimes does have a Debussy-like nature,
but in those quieter moods. Christian Seibert shows his
ability to paint pictures in subtle shades, and the ‘still’ movements
have a dreamlike quality while at the same time avoiding
static numbness. Short, sketch-like movements such as Nervosität and
the Scherzo flit like moths around a bright lamp.
I can’t help feeling Messiaen must have come across the Kuckuck
und Uhu movement, which is followed by a disarming
waltz-like ‘Menuett’ which could fairly easily have been
shoehorned into the film ‘Diva’. These piano pieces are
a collection of gems which add up to more than the sum
of their parts, and Seibert is more than capable of taking
the longer view, creating a kind of bizarre suite which climaxes
convincingly with an ebulliently anti-Nazi Foxtrott and
the final Doppelfuge, Hindemith’s final intellectual
stamp of valediction on themes both musical and psychological
in this fascinating work.
All
of Hindemith’s three piano sonatas date from 1936, and the
third, laid out in four movements, would appear to have the
greatest claim to having a neoclassical character. The first
movement is marked ruhig bewegt, with a gently rocking
Italianate siciliano nature in 6/8 or 9/8 rhythm. This broken-lyrical
mood carries through to the central movements, the second sehr
lebhaft being full of rhythmic energy, the third having
the feel of a slow march, as well as being a kind of transition
to the final Fuga. Glenn Gould recorded this sonata
in 1967, and I love his commentary about the “gaffe” of introducing
the third subject of the fugue into the third movement: “It
is a lapse that attests not only to his fondness for contrapuntal
mischief but to his not-infrequent miscalculations in stage-management – the
miscalculation is not inherently musical but theatrical.” This
kind of intellectual nit-picking doesn’t make too much difference
in the grand scheme of things; you will either like this
music or not – which boils down to whether you like Hindemith
or not, as this is typical and essential Hindemith. What
Gould also points out as a weakness is however strongly apparent
in some parts of this music, and that is a tendency to ‘splice’ musical
ideas in a fairly vertical and abrupt fashion – again, something
we all know and tolerate in other composers like Prokofiev,
and there is no doubt about the strength of the musical ideas
in this particular sonata.
CPO’s
recording is truly excellent, with both brilliance and full
dynamic range in the piano sound – Seibert’s full tone and
detailed and refined technique being given every chance to
develop, as if one were listening in an ideal concert situation.
There are a few other Hindemith piano discs around: Hans
Petermandl on Marco Polo, and Kalle Randalu on MDG to pick
out a pair of reasonably recent examples, and there is of
course Glenn Gould on Sony, if you like Glenn Gould. With
only this disc’s relative brevity as a minor quibble, I can
only hope that Christian Seibert is given the chance to add
to this impressive disc and create a complete Hindemith edition – I
for one would be at the front of the queue.
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