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Paul HINDEMITH (1895-1963)
CD 1
Symphony Mathis der Maler (1934) [27:16]
Berlin
Philharmonic/Herbert von Karajan Symphonia Serena (1946) [33:51]
Philharmonia Orchestra/Paul Hindemith
Concert Music for Strings and Brass(1930) [16:55]
Philadelphia Orchestra/Eugene Ormandy
CD 2 Der Schwanendreher (1935) [26:09]
Tabea Zimmermann (viola)
Bavarian Radio Symphony/David Shallon Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes by Carl Maria von
Weber (1943) [22:12] Nobilissima Visione - Suite (1938) [22:05]
Philadelphia Orchestra/Wolfgang Sawallisch
rec. London, Berlin, Philadelphia, Munich, New Jersey,
1956-1994 EMI CLASSICS
2068632 [78:23 + 70:37]
EMI has assembled quite
the variety of back-catalogue performances for the Hindemith
installment of its "Twentieth Century Classics" series.
The question will be how much you want (or need) any of
these particular performances.
The prize here is Ormandy's Concert Music for Strings and Brass,
which may surprise you - you'd probably not think of this
as an Ormandy piece, offhand. Amid all the fuss over the
famed Philadelphia string sound, it was easy to forget
that the orchestra's brasses were capable of crisp, bold
playing, and here they project solo and ensemble lines
alike with a trenchant brilliance. In the second movement,
Ormandy has his string players stress the burr of the bow
attack rather than their customary lush depth, maintaining
an overall astringency through the long, arching phrases;
his straightforward, no-nonsense pacing of both movements
assures musical continuity. The recording is clean and
vivid.
Equally fine is Sawallisch's account of Nobilissima Visione,
a ballet showing a kinder, gentler Hindemith. The strings
dominate the sonority, perhaps more than necessary; Martinon
(RCA), allowing his Chicago Symphony winds greater prominence,
drew more varied colors from the score. But Sawallisch
had, by 1995, gone some way towards restoring the "Philadelphia
sound" so carefully dismantled by Muti, sometimes
eliciting a layered, organlike fullness in tutti,
and you can't really blame him for favoring his expressive,
buoyant strings. And the conductor doesn't shortchange
the winds where they're clearly central, as with the crisp,
clear flute over strings at the Rondo's start, or
the searching purity of the sort-of-chorale at 2:33 of
the Passacaglia.
Oddly, the Symphonic Metamorphoses -- the ballet's original
LP coupling -- isn't nearly as good. Part of the problem
is a different recording venue, which produces boomy bass,
though the brass instruments register with depth. But Sawallisch's
heavily stressed manner in the opening Allegro sounds
flatfooted and not at all shapely. Those passages featuring
the liquid woodwinds come off better than that - I liked
their ambivalent take on their Janáčekish theme in
the Scherzo - but only the concluding March consistently
maintains some uplift.
Viola jokes aside, performers of Der Schwanendreher face the
usual problem of projecting a clear identity for the solo
instrument, rather than letting it sound like a sort of
violin with an added C string. Tabea Zimmermann's tone
isn't particularly rich, but there's enough alto in it
to cut a distinctive musical profile, and the playing is
smooth and vibrant. David Shallon elicits soft-edged attacks
from the Bavarian Radio forces, but this isn't necessarily
bad, highlighting the score's lyrical, rather than its "difficult," aspects.
The more lightly scored passages are deeply felt, and the Variationen finale
has a nice swagger in tutti, which the soloist maintains
less insistently, offering a nice contrast.
What interest inheres in the two older recordings is more historical
than musical. The Symphonia serena hasn't been recorded
much, and the composer's presence at the podium gives this
version an imprimatur of sorts. Here, the quieter passages
are deliciously clear -- the chattering Philharmonia woodwinds
have a pillowy delicacy in the Geschwindmarsch --
and Hindemith is alert to contrasts of texture, both within
and between movements. But as the sonorities fill out,
the playing isn't quite precise, and there's a sense of
aimless drifting; the climactic tuttis are unappealing.
One expects Karajan's Mathis der Maler to be something special,
and occasionally it is, at its most convincing when suffused
by the vibrant glow of sustained strings. The searching,
luminous opening is tremendously atmospheric, with the
textures filling out expansively; the closing chords of
the Grabiegung movement have a lovely aura. Karajan's
handling of the full-throated brass choir, more forward
and clean than it would become later, is also impressive.
But the conductor isn't always so careful over detail.
In the fugal bit, originally launched by the flute, at
4:09 of the Engelskonzert, the playing is slurry
and imprecisely coordinated. The third movement's driving
dotted rhythms are inconsistent: the trumpets are good
and crisp, the horns recessive, the strings mushy and lacking
in point. Digital tweaking has brightened up the sound,
at least.
This is a good mid-price acquisition for the Concert Music and Nobilissima.
But Mathis der Maler, after all, is essential, and
here it doesn't show at its best. William Steinberg's translucent Mathis used
to be available on a DG Galleria issue, along with his
excellent Concert Music and the fine Binyamini/Barenboim Schwanendreher.
If you add the young Abbado's Symphonic Metamorphoses (Decca)
and Martinon's Nobilissima (RCA), you'll have assembled
a more impressive "basic" Hindemith, though you'll
have spent rather more for it.
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