Search - Vincenzo Camaglia, Michele Lo Muto, Pietro Borgonovo :: Hindemith: Sonatas for Wind and Piano, Vol. 2

WHATEVER AND PIANO

DAVID BRYSON | Glossop Derbyshire England | 08/13/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The English version of the liner-note with this disc starts by telling us that `it is impressing to note the great emphasis he put on the use of instruments'. Indeed, I thought, a bit like Bach Beethoven and Brahms in that respect. However what the Italian original says is that he emphasised specific instrumental techniques, which both makes more sense and explains the choice of works on the disc. You will find here sonatas for trumpet, trombone, cor anglais, alto saxophone and tuba, each in partnership with the ever-dependable piano. I have no intimate knowledge of any of these wind instruments, but I have to say to any interested purchaser that the five sonatas here seem to me fairly similar in style and idiom. From this (if I am right) I infer that the emphasis on instrumental techniques is less a matter of exploring their individual peculiarities than of simply giving them a chamber piece that they can perform with piano, something that violinists and cellists had considered their birthright for centuries.



I have taken part as pianist in duos with a trumpeter in my own sitting-room, which is of a very average size. The trumpet sound was far less overbearing than I had been expecting, and from this disc I would dare to suppose that the trombone and tuba don't necessarily have to be like elephants in the room either. Whether or not for reasons of caution, the volume-level of the recording is distinctly low when on my usual setting, but if this was caution it was unnecessary. I simply notched up the volume and the sound was still perfectly acceptable in this ordinary domestic context. It is also extremely clear, the balance is good and the tone-quality is agreeable throughout.



The word that kept coming to mind throughout the entire programme was `proficient'. It is the same pianist throughout, Massimiliano Damerini, and his work is to a high and consistent standard of professionalism and musicality. The various wind soloists struck me in much the same way so far as I was in any position to judge. The tone they produced at few points seemed to me outstandingly `beautiful' or seductive in any ordinary senses, but this is probably not music where that kind of thing would be especially appropriate. The impression I had at all times was of good taste, sense of balance and sense of proportion. Now and again a deeper and more beautiful effect, in the conventional sense, is indeed called for, and from this point of view I thought that the artists carried off the concluding Funeral Music in the trumpet sonata impressively, with real quiet solemnity in their playing.



It all leaves me without any good reason to deny this disc the full five stars. I have no motivation to do so in any case, being thoroughly grateful and appreciative that I have been given the opportunity to have my own disc of these unfamiliar works so competently rendered for my benefit. As usual with this composer, the musical idiom is moderately modern without being aggressively so, and it is all basically tonal in harmony. The liner-note is of a familiar Italian variety, rather hifalutin' and waffly for my own taste, but it may come over better in the original, which I have not troubled to read from end to end. Definitely recommended. My collection is rather short of works for alto saxophone and tuba, and I have probably heard the Kreutzer sonata quite often enough for now."