Interview with Fazil Say
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)
Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, Op. 11 No. 3
Edited and completed by Fazıl Say
During the summer of 1919, Hindemith composed a three-movement Sonata for Cello and Piano. Two lively outer movements (I: Lebhaftes Zeitmaß, munter und einfach vorzutragen, III: Schnelle Viertel, stets kraft- und schwungvoll) frame a two-part middle section bearing the headings: Im Schilf. Trauerzug und Bacchanale. This version of the Sonata was performed for the first time in October 1919.
Two years later, Hindemith subjected the work to a thorough revision. He composed a completely new first movement and scrapped the last movement without replacing it. Only the two-part middle section remained unchanged, but Hindemith now deleted the programmatic headings. For the printing, he separated the two outer movements from the manuscript and sent the original middle part together with the manuscript of the new first movement to the publishers. The autograph score pages of the eliminated outer movements must be considered lost, but the complete autograph cello part as well as extensive sketch material for the first version have been handed down to us. The composer and pianist Fazıl Say agreed to take on the stimulating task of allowing himself be inspired to make a reconstruction of the lost movements from the surviving material.
Mr. Say, you have taken on the task of reconstructing the first version of the Sonata for Violoncello and Piano Op. 11 No. 3 by Paul Hindemith from the composer's sketches.
What was it about this task that stimulated you?
This was a very interesting task. I only had the finished second movement before me, whereas the first and third movements were like a puzzle. The cello part was complete, but up to 80% of the notes in the piano part were missing. So, during the first three days, I looked for the parallel spots to this existing 20% which could be used as original material. Sometimes there was no harmonic direction at all for important themes, as with theme A in the first movement and theme B in the third movement, for example – neither in the exposition nor in the recapitulation. In this case, I had to make subjective decisions as to how it should sound.
Allow us to have a glimpse into your "reconstruction workshop"!
Hindemith composed an incredibly courageous, thoroughly modern work for the year 1919. There is a great deal of pentatonic here, much polytonality and many ideas from the harmonic languages of Claude Debussy and Alban Berg, and in some places also from Richard Strauss and Franz Schreker. One must very carefully follow the intervals that Hindemith used – the tritone is of great significance – as well as the composer's mathematics... This work was very enjoyable for me!
What I also find interesting about this Sonata is that it is not always music for cello and piano - the cello frequently works against the piano.
How much "Fazıl Say" will there be in the reconstructed Sonata?
Oh well, not much, but of course there is something subjective there. The beginning of the first movement was completely missing, so that's my music, and the entire ending of the third movement was also missing, so those are also my ideas. But I have attempted to realise ideas in the technical and stylistic sense in which Hindemith would have done.
You began your training at the Conservatory in Ankara, and Hindemith was decisively involved in the establishment of this institution during the 1930s. Can anything of Hindemith's work still be sensed in Ankara today?
The Conservatory of Ankara was founded in 1936 by Hindemith together with Carl Ebert, Licco Amar (in whose quartet Hindemith was violist) and Eduard Zuckmayer. The Conservatory of Music and the Performing Arts in Ankara is truly one of the most important institutions in Turkey; almost all artists who are known today studied there. We have Hindemith's letters to the Turkish minister in which he dictates everything that should be bought and organised for the new Conservatory: pianos, string instruments, rehearsal rooms in the building. All these details are very interesting. I am delighted to encounter Hindemith in this way, about 80 years after the founding of my school in Ankara, and to complete his work. This was a great joy and gave me an inner feeling of well-being.
Interview by Susanne Schaal-Gotthardt