Filippo Farinelli - Hindemith: Complete Music for Piano Duo (2022) [Official Digital Download 24/48]

This record contains the complete works for piano duo (piano 4-hands and 2 pianos) by Paul Hindemith (1895–1963). While Hindemith was foremost a violist, not a pianist, he knew his way around the piano, and this familiarity is reflected in his compositions for the instrument, all of a decent technical level and featuring great originality of expression. Even if he doesn’t immediately spring to pianists’ minds, he deserves to be included – alongside Debussy, Schönberg, Ravel, Stravinsky, Bartoìk and Prokofiev – in the small group of innovators who significantly enhanced the piano repertoire in the early 20th century, Hindemith in particular with his Suite 1922, three solo piano sonatas and Ludus Tonalis.

Hindemith’s compositions for piano duo, while few in number, are significant and spread across the span of his career, providing snapshots of his various compositional phases. While the Walzer of 1916 are an output of Hindemith’s early training in composition, by 1921 his Ragtime (wohltemperiert) already reflects an early-mature period during which he sought to define a personal style of his own that could be openly abrasive and irreverent. The final three works, on the other hand, present a fully mature composer with a gift for balanced construction: his piano reduction of the Mathis der Maler Symphony (1934), itself a condensed predecessor of the opera of the same name, and the two Duo Sonatas, for piano 4-hands (1938) and for 2 pianos (1942).

The collection of 8 Walzer were composed at the height of World War I, and there is a clear feeling of mournfulness in them, the seventh in particular written in a spiky, polytonal and polyrhythmic language that is both innovative and tragic. Ragtime (wohltemperiert) epitomises the biting parodies and derisivecaricatures that were all the rage in the art world in the early years of the Weimar Republic. The final three compositions leave that sarcasm behind. In his Symphonie ‘Mathis der Maler’ he transfers the full multi-layered density of his majestic symphony’s orchestral writing to the keyboard with painstaking accuracy. The two duo sonatas are no less impressive in their variety and compositional richness.

This record contains the complete works written by German musician Paul Hindemith (1895–1963) for piano duo, both his compositions for piano four hands and for two pianos. Although Hindemith was a violist, not a pianist, he knew his way around the piano well: he was a keen multi-instrumentalist, and often performed at the keyboard. His fam of a high technical level and feature great originality of expression. Hindemith deserves to be included – alongside Claude Debussy, Arnold Schönberg, Maurice Ravel, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók and Sergei Prokofiev – in the small group of innovators who significantly enhanced the piano repertoire in the early twentieth century.

This new recording presents 8 Waltzes, Op. 6, the composer’s arrangement for piano 4-hands of his orchestral masterpiece Mathis der Maler, the Sonata for piano 4 hands, and finally the 1942 Sonata for Two Pianos, arguably outdoing all the others in terms of its originality and the wealth of ideas it contains. It is a milestone work in the piano duo repertoire, on a par with another masterpiece from the era, Stravinsky’s Concerto for Two Pianos.

Played by two distinguished Italian pianists, Simone Nocchi and Filippo Farinelli, who is the leading power behind many recording projects for Brilliant Classics in works by Hindemith (Complete solo sonatas with piano), Jolivet, Dallapiccola, Ravel, Debussy, Koechlin and Berg.

Tracklist:
01. 8 Walzer, Op. 6, 3 Wunderschöne Mädchen im Schwarzwald: I. Langsames Walzertempo
02. 8 Walzer, Op. 6, 3 Wunderschöne Mädchen im Schwarzwald: II. Mäßig Schnell
03. 8 Walzer, Op. 6, 3 Wunderschöne Mädchen im Schwarzwald: III. Lebhaft ma non Troppo
04. 8 Walzer, Op. 6, 3 Wunderschöne Mädchen im Schwarzwald: IV. Mäßig Schnell
05. 8 Walzer, Op. 6, 3 Wunderschöne Mädchen im Schwarzwald: V. Munter
06. 8 Walzer, Op. 6, 3 Wunderschöne Mädchen im Schwarzwald: VI. Langsam
07. 8 Walzer, Op. 6, 3 Wunderschöne Mädchen im Schwarzwald: VII. Stürmisch
08. 8 Walzer, Op. 6, 3 Wunderschöne Mädchen im Schwarzwald: VIII. Langsam
09. Ragtime
10. Symphonie "Mathis der Mahler": I. Engelkonzert
11. Symphonie "Mathis der Mahler": II. Grablegung
12. Symphonie "Mathis der Mahler": III. Versuchung des heiligen Antonius
13. Sonata (1938) for Piano Duo: I. Mäßig Bewegt
14. Sonata (1938) for Piano Duo: II. Lebhaft
15. Sonata (1938) for Piano Duo: III. Ruhig Bewegt
16. Sonata (1942) for Piano Duo: I. Chimes - Maestoso
17. Sonata (1942) for Piano Duo: II. Allegro - Fast
18. Sonata (1942) for Piano Duo: III. Canon - Slow
19. Sonata (1942) for Piano Duo: IV. Recitative
20. Sonata (1942) for Piano Duo: V. Fugue - Moderate


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