Pianophiles with good memories may well recognise the cover
of this new release: it is all but identical to the original
Hyperion issue in 1996. All that has changed, aside from the
'Helios' trimming, is the catalogue number (previously CDA 66824)
and the price - Helios being Hyperion's budget reissue banner.
Ludus Tonalis is Hindemith's last piano work and his
tribute, in a sense, to Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.
Between an opening three-part Praeludium in C and its
final mirror-image Postludium, Hindemith takes the listener
on an epic, but highly accessible journey through a panoply
of fugues, twelve in three parts, and eleven interludes, each
of which modulates from one key to the next along. Hindemith
subtitled the work 'contrapuntal, tonal and technical studies
for the piano', but such an academic epithet says little about
the scintillating nature of a work of cornucopian imagination
and ingenuity.
Hindemith grew to dislike the spirited Suite 1922, which
he later said was "really not an honourable ornament in the
music history of our time, and it depresses an old man rather
seriously to see that the sins of his youth impress people more
than his better creations". Its five sections are popular dance
forms of that period in America, where he was resident, including
a foxtrot, Boston and ragtime, which he had elsewhere referred
to as "junk [...] When I run out of any decent ideas I always
write such things." Yet Hindemith deals with the pieces in a
harmonically more sophisticated and indeed ironic way than is
seen in Shostakovich's popular 'Jazz' and 'Variety' Suites,
and overall the Suite makes an appealing companion to the more
heavyweight Ludus.
John McCabe was in his mid-fifties when he made this recording,
and quite possibly at the height of his prowess as a pianist.
Hindemith's music is much easier on the listener than on the
pianist, but McCabe, with his composer's ear and insight, makes
light of the technical difficulties to put many of the surprisingly
expressive elements within the listener's grasp.
As far as sound quality goes, Hyperion are not always at their
best in orchestral recordings, with a certain muddy quality
finding its way into string sections especially, but on chamber
and solo discs there is no such problem, and audio quality here
is very good. The booklet notes are unchanged from old, with
Robert Matthew-Walker's fairly long essay still delivering the
goods. The booklet can be downloaded for free from Hyperion's
website here.
Boris Berezovsky's excellent recording of the same two works
on Warner Classics (2564634122, 2006) is still widely available,
whilst in Siegfried Mauser's recent recording of Hindemith's
complete piano works on the German WERGO label, volumes I and
IV (WER 61812, 62502) would both be required to furnish little
more than the same, but at twice the cost of the Warner. With
new Helios releases selling for under £5 at many online
outlets, this represents a substantial bargain for all collectors
of the key piano works of the 20th century.
Byzantion
Collected reviews and contact at artmusicreviews.co.uk
John McCabe (piano) 