More Hindemith Trios

This may well be the first time on this blog that I have offered the same work in consecutive posts, or even featured the same composer. But Nick's recent postings, at Grumpy's Classics Cave, of Mozart and Beethoven string trios played by the Pougnet-Riddle-Pini trio reminded me that I had their valuable coupling of the two Hindemith trios in its third Westminster incarnation, as part of their "Collectors' Series", a mid-60s reissue series derived from monaural chamber music recordings of a decade earlier (and, thankfully, not "updated" with fake stereo trickery):

Hindemith: Two String Trios (No. 1, Op. 34; No. 2, 1933)
Jean Pougnet, violin; Frederick Riddle, viola; Anthony Pini, cello
Recorded in the autumn of 1954
Westminster W-9067, one LP record
Link (FLAC files, 110.32 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 72.90 MB)

I am indebted to Nick, not only for inspiring this post, but also for rendering practical service in eliminating the results of an awful gouge in the vinyl on the first side, affecting the first minute or so of the Op. 34 trio.

While I was working on the above transfer, it occurred to me that if I transferred one more LP, I could have available on this blog all the recordings of Hindemith's string trios to be made before the advent of digital recording (including the ones the composer participated in). I am not aware of any other recording of No. 2 besides the one I posted last month, but of No. 1, besides the incomplete one by the Amar-Hindemith Trio, a stereo LP version was made in 1968 by three young German musicians, coupled with the first recording, by a different ensemble, of Hindemith's Op. 16 string quartet:

Hindemith: String Trio No. 1, Op. 34
Rainer Kussmaul, violin; Jürgen Kussmaul, viola; Jürgen Wolf, cello
and
Hindemith: String Quartet No. 3 (old No. 2) in C, Op. 16
Schäffer Quartet (Schäffer-Szabados-Pill-Racz)
Recorded in the summer of 1968
Musical Heritage Society OR-H-297, one stereo LP record
Link (FLAC files, 239.37 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 85.52 MB)

This recording was made by an independent German recording company, Da Camera, in Heidelberg, and was part of a 9-disc retrospective of Hindemith's chamber music. In Germany the series was published as a box set, whereas in the USA each record was obtainable separately. Of the three musicians playing the Op. 34 trio, only one is still with us: Jürgen Kussmaul, born in 1944, was two years older than brother Rainer, who departed this life only last year. The cellist, Jürgen Wolf, was born in 1938 and died in 2014. Their playing of Op. 34 contrasts markedly with that the Pougnet ensemble; the latter really dig into the music while the Germans are more careful and always beautiful-sounding. The Pougnet's approach is much closer to the Amar-Hindemith's in the two movements where direct comparisons are possible.

Moeran: String Trio

E. J. Moeran

New Year's Eve will see the 118th anniversary of the birth of the English composer (with strong Irish roots) Ernest John Moeran (1894-1950), and so I present the first recording of a major work of his: the utterly delectable String Trio in G of 1931.  This was recorded ten years after its composition, during the darkest days of World War II, by a group that would later become renowned for its Westminster LPs - among them, the two Hindemith string trios - but this appears to have been their only 78-rpm recording as a string trio:

Moeran: String Trio in G Major (1931)
Jean Pougnet, violin; Frederick Riddle, viola; Anthony Pini, cello
Recorded May 16, 1941
English Columbia DX 1014 through 1016, three 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 58.68 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 26.38 MB)

Riddle (1912-1995) we have met before, in his pioneering recording of Walton's viola concerto, and Pini (1902-1989) turned up on numerous recordings as a second cellist to the Budapest and Pro Arte quartets.  Pini was also the cellist in the Philharmonia String Quartet.  Jean Pougnet (1907-1968), who was British despite his French-sounding name, recorded the Delius violin concerto with Beecham, and was active also in Karl Haas' London Baroque Ensemble, recording several concertos with them.  In the earlier stages of his career, he often played in dance bands - as on Jolyon's most recent post.

Walton's Viola Concerto: The First Recording

William Walton's first fully mature work, his 1929 Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, was written for the dean of English viola players, Lionel Tertis, who, however, declined to play it at first (the honor for the first performance went to a young Paul Hindemith).  Tertis did eventually take it up, but when in 1937 the time came for Decca to make the first recording, Tertis had retired from playing, so he suggested that Frederick Riddle (1912-1995), the principal violist of the London Symphony, be engaged for the session.  Riddle's interpretation became the composer's favorite.  Perhaps Riddle's background as a chamber music player - he later formed a famous string trio with Jean Pougnet and Anthony Pini that made many fine recordings - accounted for a more intimate presentation of Walton's concerto than virtuosos like Tertis or William Primrose (who also recorded the work with the composer conducting) were able to deliver.

Walton: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra
Frederick Riddle with the London Symphony conducted by William Walton
Recorded December 6, 1937
Decca Album No. 8, three 78-rpm records
Link (FLAC files, 54.91 MB)
Link (MP3 files, 24.74 MB)

This set, incidentally, was one of the few English Decca recordings to be issued by American Decca as part of its domestic album series, before that series was given over largely to popular material.