About This Item
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, Schoenberg, Ravel, Stravinsky, Bartok 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 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.
