Paul Hindemith was himself a violist and said he would play the violin "only in cases of pressing emergency." For part of his career he made a point of writing music for instruments underserved in the solo repertory, and he channeled his frustration with the state of the viola repertory into a whole series of works for his own instrument. German violist Tabea Zimmermann has embarked on a complete cycle of these, and the idea is a good one: they're all attractive works, and holding the instrument constant you get a detailed ...
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Paul Hindemith was himself a violist and said he would play the violin "only in cases of pressing emergency." For part of his career he made a point of writing music for instruments underserved in the solo repertory, and he channeled his frustration with the state of the viola repertory into a whole series of works for his own instrument. German violist Tabea Zimmermann has embarked on a complete cycle of these, and the idea is a good one: they're all attractive works, and holding the instrument constant you get a detailed look at Hindemith's very personal stamp on the neo-classic style. The Kammermusik No. 5 and Konzertmusik heard here are both designated as being for viola and large chamber orchestra, but neither the orchestra nor its relation to the viola is typical: the viola part is woven into the music throughout, and it hovers above an orchestra that contains no violins or violas itself. The shifting textures and subtleties of register that result are at the heart of Hindemith's music, which can...
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