Hindemith: Works for Viola

Antoine Tamestit persuasively treats Paul Hindemith as a hot-blooded romantic in his lovingly and lushly nuanced account of the 1919 Sonata in F, Op 11 No 4. He brings similar persuasive advocacy – and astonishing virtuoso élan – to the altogether more forward-looking Sonata for solo viola, Op 24 No 4, written three years later. Hindemith was an accomplished viola player himself, and the concerto, Der Schwanendreher (whose folksong origins Tamestit links to parting and grief, as Hindemith faced hostility from the Nazis) brought him to London for the UK premiere in 1936. There he found himself writing his Trauermusik at short notice, as an extra for live broadcast, after the death of George V. It's now one of his best-known pieces. url.ie/8fjv