I have recently listened again to this wonderful piece, and I would like to learn it in its entirety. I have the Schott edition which comes without fingering, so I have to work up my own fingering from scratch. That'll take a while as the piece is not easy, and so much of the musical coherence here hinges on careful fingering to keep the phrasing of the melodic lines.

Have you played the third sonata (or other pieces by Hindemith for that matter)? Please feel free to share your impressions.

There isn't too much piano music from the 20th century that I love. However, Hindemith is just great. The music floats in a very idiosyncratic tonal system, poised somehow between traditional tonality and atonality, but never really fully approaching either. It is an amalgamation of Bach and modernity, exploiting extremely well the virtuoso capabilities of the modern piano coupled with contrapuntal fireworks.

Actually, Glenn Gould made a breath-taking recording of No. 3. It's even on youtube.

I played the 4-hand sonata back in chamber music school some 40 years ago. At the time, I was not very familiar with his idiom, which made it especially tough to read and play, but I liked the music anyway. But I was not really comfortable with either my partner nor our coach. Plus, we had only a week in which to learn it before performing it. So my memories of it are a bit, um, fraught.

Speaking of fraught, do you know Hindemith's "Minimax" string quartet (only one channel in the first part )? Funny stuff...

The third sonata is wonderful! And it seems playable. (I've read through it.)

So are the first two sonatas, as well.

So is Ludus Tonalis, his massive set of interludes and fugues for the piano.

Lots of great stuff! Keep us informed!


-Jason

Do you know where I can get a copy of Hindimith's piano music online pdf, legally?

I've looked and not found anything. But it's easily available for purchase from sheetmusicplus.com and similar sites. (Although, annoyingly, I can't find a single volume that has all three sonatas!)

-Jason

Only the music published before 1922 is out of copyright in the United States. Everything else comes from Schott.

so no legal purchase downloads?


***

Meh, I caved in and bought it paperback from Musicnotes.com

$26.00

I have played it. I also used the Schott edition (the only one I could find for purchase). The LH in the middle section of 1st movement is a pain to work out fingering for.

Lots of contrapuntal lines in 1st, 2nd and 4th movements. The 3rd is very charismatic. Because of the use of many repetitive figures everywhere, this sonata can sound very dry and boring unless the pianist brings out the character that is hidden deep inside the notes.

There is also a recording by Maria Yudina. Hers and Gould's are the only recording I can find. IMHO Yudina's recording more stylistic but contrapuntally less effective than Gould's. I recommend listening to both if you are able to find them.

I'd love to know if there are other recordings of this piece.