Sonata for Double Bass and Piano

Composed in 1949, the Sonata for Double Bass and Piano is one of Hindemith's last contributions to his encyclopaedic series of sonatas for virtually every instrument, and it stands as the most important twentieth-century sonata in the double bass repertoire. Hindemith, whose compositional ethos centred on craftsmanship, Gebrauchsmusik, and the enrichment of neglected instruments, gave the double bass an equal partner in the piano, crafting music of contrapuntal rigour and surprising lyricism. The three movements — Allegretto, Scherzo (Allegro assai), and Moderato — move from a flowing first movement of neoclassical severity, through a brilliantly rhythmic scherzo that pushes the bass to its technical limits, to a reflective finale of understated beauty. The work is a watershed in demonstrating that the double bass is capable of the same expressive and technical demands as any other string instrument, and it is now central to the professional double bassist's concertante repertoire.