Once, long ago in a far away land called Weimar, Germany, there was a composer named
Paul Hindemith. He was a phenomenally gifted and prodigious composer able to turn out huge numbers of pieces in an enormous diversity of genres and styles. From operas to orchestral music, from concertos to chamber music, from songs to piano music,
Hindemith was seemingly indefatigable and apparently inexhaustible. Better yet,
Hindemith was a fully engaged composer willing to turn out pieces for a huge range of players. There were easy pieces for beginners, fun pieces for amateurs, difficult pieces for virtuosos and recondite pieces for cognoscenti. And in all of them,
Hindemith was always himself: always smart, always strong, and always dedicated to the highest possible moral and musical standards.
Yet for all that, after his death in America in 1963,
Hindemith was not so much forgotten as ignored. Because after the rise of serial, aleatoric, and electronic schools of composition,
Hindemith and his music seemed not so much old-fashioned as irrelevant. But, as this magnificent 1993 recording by pianist
Ivo Janssen proves,
Hindemith was neither old-fashioned nor irrelevant. In the Suite for Piano and the Tanzstücke from the '20s,
Janssen shows that
Hindemith's irony and energy are just as relevant as his contemporary
Stravinsky efforts. In the Second and Third piano sonatas from the '30s,
Janssen shows that
Hindemith's integrity and humanity are just as puissant as his contemporary
Shostakovich.
Janssen, a superlative pianist with the power of
Richter, the brilliance of
Pollini, and the independence of
Michelangeli, is an ideal
Hindemith player. Every tempo is driven, every line is lucid, and every note is absolutely necessary. For listeners who don't already know
Hindemith, it might be better to start with one of the later orchestral pieces like the Symphonic Metamorphosis. But for listeners who already know his orchestral music, this disc is a wonderful place to start with
Hindemith's piano music. Globe's sound is rich, clear, and deep.