His father had been killed in action in Flanders in 1915.Īfter the war, Hindemith returned to lead the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra, but the artistic climate was subtly changing. They were from old, patrician families and the young corporal spent much time in organizing chamber music concerts for his superior officers, for which he was thankful. Whereas other musicians and composers fought at the front, and some were wounded or killed, Hindemith was fortunate in his commanding officers. His ability as a violinist ensured he had plenty of work, but in 1917 he was called up for military service. Hindemith’s earliest works exhibit little of the total originality that marked them out from about 1922 onwards-chamber music featured much among them, for he played in various ensembles, largely for pleasure, not for profit. He was also a fine pianist and mastered several other instruments. By the age of twenty, and a member of the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra, he had played Bach’s Chaconne and the Beethoven Violin Concerto in public and had begun to compose. Paul Hindemith’s gifts were wholly exceptional. Born in 1895 near Frankfurt, the son of a house-painter, Hindemith’s early life was dominated by his strongly independent father who-himself musical-encouraged his naturally musical children (Paul, Rudolf and their sister Toni). They had first met in the early 1920s when Hindemith was leader of the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra and Furtwängler was the conductor of that city’s Museum Concerts, prior to his appointment in 1922 as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in succession to Arthur Nikisch.ġ922 was also a significant year for Hindemith. Both of these great German musicians were in exile as a result of their opposition to the Third Reich. At that time, Hindemith was living in America, Furtwängler in Switzerland. ‘ fervent, committed, technically dazzling interpretation never has appeared on CD, and it deserves reissue.'Hindemith’s success lies in his being a power for order.’ Thus Wilhelm Furtwängler, writing in his Notebooks for 1945. Pianists who can solve Hindemith’s formidable demands have always had a great deal of fun playing Ludus tonalis, and a really distinguished performance of it can provide much enjoyment for the listener.’ - High Fidelity, May 1966 ‘Its technical and scholarly attributes are happily partnered by humour, charm and a great deal of fertile imagination. However, she made comparatively few recordings: this account of Ludus tonalis is her major legacy, but it has never been made available on CD.
Her television debut on the BBC had led to a series of programs back in Stockholm where she lived with her husband at the time, the film director Ingmar Bergman. Having studied with Edwin Fischer, Laretei had performed throughout Europe for the past two decades, becoming something of a celebrity. She recorded Ludus tonalis in a New York studio a few days after presenting it at Carnegie Hall, where she had won over the audience not only with her performance but also a question-and-answer session after the concert. Having been coached by the composer in the cycle a decade earlier, she incorporated his performance suggestions and amendments to the score into her performance. There is a unique authority to this recording made in October 1965 for the Philips label by the Estonian-Swedish pianist Kabi Laretei. It’s a monument of modern keyboard literature whose forbidding reputation is belied by the approachable and highly varied nature of Hindemith’s writing.
The hour-long piano cycle itself finds refuge from conflict in the reassertion of the time-honoured value of counterpoint, comprising twelve fugues and interludes framed by a prelude and its mirror image as a postlude.
Hindemith wrote Ludus tonalis in 1942 while staying the US as a refugee from Nazi Germany. $ Ī 20th-century counterpart to The Well-Tempered Clavier in a landmark recording, long unavailable, newly remastered and transferred to CD from the original tapes for the very first time.