Lawrence Power - Hindemith: The Complete Viola Music, Vol. 2 - Sonatas for solo viola

Lawrence Power, Britain�s acknowledged greatest living viola player, continues his fascinating and acclaimed series of Hindemith�s complete viola music. This second disc features Hindemith�s solo viola sonatas. These works were all written for Hindemith himself to perform, and are thus are of special significance�as near to a personal testament, an intimate soliloquy, as exists in his multifarious and genre-spanning output.The shadow of Bach lies over any composer writing a solo string sonata, and this is clear in the Passacaglia Op 11 No 5 Sonata, where Hindemith�s ultimate model is unmistakably the famous D minor Chaconne from Bach�s second violin partita�but viewed through a post-Brahmsian sense of sonority and architecture that produces a truly contemporary result. This ardent (and arduous) movement, a most impressive compositional feat, is the first example of a form which was to be one of Hindemith�s trademarks throughout his career, and it makes the Sonata something of a personal manifesto of artistic ambition. In later sonatas the severity of Hindemith�s mature style becomes evident�but harnessed, here, to the extraordinary virtuosity of the composer-performer, it gives rise to the most exhilarating and eloquent music.