Hindemith: Kleine Sonate für Viola d'amour und Klavier, Op. 25 No. 2 (1922) with score

Performers: Luca Sanzò (viola d’amore), Mauritzio Paciariello (piano)

0:00 Mäßig schnell. Lustig
1:47 Sehr langsam
9:32 Sehr lebhaft

Review by Stuart Sillitoe for MusicWeb International:
The Kleine Sonata for Viola d’Amore and Piano is somewhat of an interloper on this disc as it is not usually included in recordings of his sonatas for viola and piano. It is all the more welcome on this present disc. This sonata, which was composed in May 1922, reflects Hindemith’s “new sport” of collecting and learning to play old instruments. He goes on to write that “I play viola d’amour, a quite splendid instrument that is no longer in use at all and for which there is only a very small literature. The most beautiful sound that you can imagine; an indescribable sweetness and softness. It is difficult to play, but I play it with great enthusiasm and to the joy of all hearers.” The sonata itself is a synthesis between the old and new styles, that is to say that there is music composed in a neo-baroque style juxtaposed with music that could only have been composed in the decade that followed the First World War. The resulting sonata is quite effective, especially in the interplay between the old and the new.