The Violin Sonata No. 2 for piano and violin, in
D major,
Op. 11, No. 2, is the second surviving
violin sonata for the two instruments by
Paul Hindemith, composed in 1918. It was published as ''Sonate in D für Klavier und Violine''.
History
Hindemith composed the sonata at the end of the First World War, between September and November 1918.
After a youthful first foray into the genre (his 1912–13 sonata for piano and violin is now lost), he returned to it again in 1917.
In the years to 1924, he would compose
five violin sonatas, three for solo violin, two for piano and violin.
In these works, he turned away from
late-Romanticism, and towards the alternative models of
Johann Sebastian Bach and
neo-Baroque composers such as
Max Reger
Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 187311 May 1916) was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, as a musical director at the Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, Leipzig University ...
.
Hindemith originally termed the sonata in question "Sonatine", and numbered it Op. 11, No. 3. He dedicated the piece to a couple from
Frankfurt with an interest in the arts, Abdul (Alfred) Linder and his wife Olly.
The work was first performed in
Frankfurt on 10 April 1920 by violinist
Max Strub
Karl Johannes Max Strub (28 September 1900 – 23 March 1966) was a German violin virtuoso and eminent violin pedagogue. He gained a Europe-wide reputation during his 36 years of activity as primarius of the Strub Quartet. Stations as concertmas ...
and pianist
Eduard Zuckmayer
Eduard Zuckmayer (3 August 1890 – 2 July 1972) was a German music educator, composer, conductor and pianist. He was the older brother of the famous German writer Carl Zuckmayer (1896–1977).
Family and Youth
He was the first son of wealthy ...
.
In performance, it lasts approximately 19 minutes.
The sonata was published by
Schott in
Mainz in 1920. The 24-page manuscript score from Alfred Wolf's estate is kept at the in Frankfurt. The work has been included in the Hindemith Complete Edition, edited by Peter Cahn, in 1976, in volume V, 6 (String Chamber Music III).
Structure and music
The sonata is in three
movements:
# Teil 1 Lebhaft
# Teil 2 Ruhig und gemessen
# Teil 3 Im Zeitmass und Charakter eines geschwinden Tanzes. Frisch und stets bewegt.
The model of
Reger shows in the first movement, marked "Lively", with a rich piano part and described as "energetically gripping".
It has a marking, like some by
Schumann: "Mit starrem Trotz" (with a rigid defiance). The first
theme
Theme or themes may refer to:
* Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work
* Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos
* Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...
is introduced in
unison of both instruments, contrasted by a second theme which is elegant and reminiscent of
Debussy. The
development includes dance music and "stormy" passages; the
coda
Coda or CODA may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* Movie coda, a post-credits scene
* ''Coda'' (1987 film), an Australian horror film about a serial killer, made for television
*''Coda'', a 2017 American experimental film from Na ...
was described as "still defiant and hard-bitten".
The second movement, marked "Quiet and measured", is dominated by independent lines combined.
A lyrical beginning develops to more agitation and passion, showing the composer's "gift for expressive melody".
The final movement is marked "In time and character of a swift dance. Fresh and always moving." The cheerful music has been compared to
Erich Korngold's incidental music to ''
Much Ado About Nothing'', composed around the same time. It recalls
Baroque dances "in a wholly updated way".
Recordings
*
Oscar Shumsky
Oscar Shumsky (March 23, 1917 in Philadelphia – July 24, 2000 in Rye, New York) was an American violinist and conductor born to Russian-Jewish parents. Oscar Shumsky married Louise Sophia Carboni on October 4, 1939. Together they had two ...
(violin) and
Mario Bernardi
Mario Bernardi, (20 August 1930 – 2 June 2013) was a Canadian conductor and pianist.[Ulf Wallin
Ulf Wallin is a Swedish classical violinist and professor at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin.
Life
Born in Växjö, Wallin studied at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm and at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst ...]
(violin) and
Roland Pöntinen
Roland Peter Pöntinen (born 1963 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish pianist and composer.
Pöntinen was born to an Ingrian Finnish father and Swedish mother. He studied at the Adolf Fredrik's Music School and the Royal Swedish Academy of Musi ...
(piano),
BIS Records
BIS Records is a record label founded in 1973 by Robert von Bahr. It is located in Åkersberga, Sweden.
BIS focuses on classical music, both contemporary and early, especially works that are not already well represented by existing recordings. ...
1995
*
Ulf Hoelscher
Ulf Hoelscher (born 17 January 1942 in Kitzingen) is a German violinist.
He has been soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. He has recorded numerous concertos by Sch ...
(violin) and Benedikt Koehlen (piano),
Classic Produktion Osnabrück 1996
*
Oleg Kagan
Oleg Moiseyevich Kagan (Russian: Оле́г Моисе́евич Кага́н; 22 November 1946 Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russian SFSR – 15 July 1990, Munich, West Germany) was a Soviet violinist, known for his chamber collaborations with such musicia ...
(violin) and
Sviatoslav Richter (piano), Live Classics 1996
*
Ida Bieler (violin) and
Kalle Randalu
Kalle Randalu (born 25 November 1956) is an Estonian pianist.
Randalu was born in Tallinn, and trained at the Moscow Conservatory under Lev Vlassenko. In 1981-82 Randalu was awarded two competition prizes: he shared the VII Tchaikovsky Competit ...
(piano),
MDG 1997
*
Gidon Kremer (violin) and
Andrei Gavrilov
Andrei Gavrilov (in Russian Андрей Гаврилов; born September 21, 1955) is a Swiss pianist of Russian background.
Early life and music career
Andrei Gavrilov was born into a family of artists in Moscow. His father was Vladimir Gavr ...
(piano), Olympia 2004
*
Tanja Becker-Bender (violin) and Péter Nagy (piano),
Hyperion Records 2012
* Jill Lawson (violin) and Elliot Lawson (piano),
Brilliant Classics 2013/2014
*
Roman Mints
Roman Mints (born 1976 in Moscow) is a British citizen, British violinist. He has worked with other violinists and together with oboist Dmitry Bulgakov founded the Homecoming Chamber Music Festival. He has given premieres of various works and recor ...
(violin) and
Alexander Kobrin
Alexander Yevgenyevich Kobrin (Александр Кобрин, born 20 March 1980 in Moscow) is a concert pianist and teacher.
At age five, he enrolled in the Gnessin Special School of Music in Moscow where his primary teacher was Tatiana Ze ...
(piano), Quartz Music 2019
Miscellaneous
The violin sonata is on the literature list, category "Duo: piano and one string instrument", of
Jugend musiziert.
References
Further reading
* Michael Hoffmann: ''Sonate in D für Klavier und Violine op. 11 Nr. 2''. In ''Harenberg, Kulturführer Kammermusik''. 3. völlig neu bearbeitete Auflage, Meyers Lexikonverlag, Mannheim 2008, , p. 357 f.
External links
*
{{authority control
Hindemith
1918 compositions
Compositions by Paul Hindemith
Compositions in D major