HINDEMITH Organ Sonatas. 2 Organ Pieces
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Paul Hindemith
Genre:
Instrumental
Label: Naxos
Magazine Review Date: 11/2014
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 72
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 8 573194
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(3) Sonatas for Organ |
Paul Hindemith, Composer
Kirsten Sturm, Organ Paul Hindemith, Composer |
2 Organ PIeces |
Paul Hindemith, Composer
Kirsten Sturm, Organ Paul Hindemith, Composer |
Ludus tonalis, Movement: 11 Interludes |
Paul Hindemith, Composer
Kirsten Sturm, Organ Paul Hindemith, Composer |
Author: Marc Rochester
Hindemith’s often sparse textures demand great clarity of articulation and for the most part Kirsten Sturm manages well, although, particularly in the outer movements of the Second Sonata (notably around 1'10" in the Fugue), some ambiguous fingerwork is further clouded by the generous acoustic of Rottenburg Cathedral. She delivers Hindemith’s crisp rhythms with considerable incisiveness which relaxes just enough, as in the opening of the Third Sonata, to prevent it sounding too mechanical; and, with the exception of the second movement of the First Sonata, which rather loses its focus, her readings have an invigorating sense of purpose. The 1979 Sandtner organ, with 61 stops spread over four manuals, occasionally seems a trifle hefty for this essential light-footed music but in the main Sturm’s registrations are highly effective.
It is in the smaller pieces that this fine organ (and, for that matter, Sturm herself) really comes into its own. Written under enemy fire in the trenches of Flanders during the closing months of the First World War, one would have expected the Two Pieces to be rather less bright and cheerful than they are and, like the 11 non-fugal movements from Ludus tonalis, they are full of colour, charm and not a little humour – the third Interlude takes on a ridiculously clown-like character with its jaunty high flutes and growling bass reed. Sturm perfectly finds the measure of these delicate yet captivating miniatures.
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