Hindemith's organ sonatas must be among the most successful realizations of the Gebrauchsmusik ideal. Technically they are not beyond reach of youngsters and amateurs, as virtually all modern organ works of comparable quality are, and they are memorable (the first two rather more than the third, I find) and delightfully unacademic in structure.
The also embody a spirit which finds profound poetry in the everyday, though for that to come across they need the right sort of instrument, unfailingly articulate playing and apt registrations. All of these are to be found on Peter Hurford's new Argo recording, together with spacious sound quality on both LP and CD. The timbres of the Ratzeburg Cathedral organ are attractive and clear—I particularly enjoyed the stringy sounds early in the First Sonata and its haunting conclusion on four-foot and two-foot stops, also the discreet tremulant in the slow movements. Quiet pedal passages are not without a certain woolliness, and I have yet to adjust to some of Peter Hurford's licences—his expressive slowings and occasional disregard for staccatos (there are few enough of them in the scores). But that may be just my excessive loyalty to the tangy rhythmic sense and piquant registrations of Lionel Rogg's long-deleted Oryx record (ORYX1923, 10/67) and Hurford certainly puts across that sense of healthy aural recreation which makes these pieces so rewarding.
Kropfreiter's Toccata francese is a less-than-inspiring conclusion, with its largely second-hand ideas including a nod to the bogus bitonal mis-transcription of the Neusidler Jeduntanz. But four of Hugo Distler's Spilestucke are an attractive bonus—the second one is a particularly charming idea.'