Hindemith & Schoenberg: String Trios

Albumbeschreibung

There is a world of difference between Hindemith’s First Trio, composed in 1924 “on a train” as the composer stated in his own catalogue, and his 1933 Second Trio. While the first features some of these relentless, almost Prokofievian, rhythmic and thematic elements, the second rolls out its extremely sophisticated contrapuntal language along a soft lyrical canvas (with a touch of humour here and there) specific to later Hindemith. There is also a world of difference between Hindemith’s Trios and Schoenberg’s, written in 1946, soon after the composer almost died from a heart attack. Granted, the thematic structure is based on a dodecaphonic series, but after a brief adjustment period, it becomes impossible not to notice countless tiny tonal, harmonic waves skilfully hidden below the overall texture. The composer was quoted saying this particular work was “a description of his illness”, most probably with a fair share of dark humour. Thomas Mann claimed that Schoenberg told him he had secretly represented his medical treatment, the nurse and everything else in his music. Hanns Eisler, for his part, thought he had discovered which chords represented the injections… Ouch! Typically Schoenberg. Trio Zimmermann is made up of three great international soloists: violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann, violist Antoine Tamestit and cellist Christian Poltéra. And all three play on Stradivariuses, no less! © SM/Qobuz