Customer Reviews

Hindemith: Kammermusik Concertos Nos. 1-7 ~ Chailly

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Poor Paul Hindemith. He began his career as one of music's bad boys, a position guarenteed by his scandalous expressionist opera Sancta Susannah and ended his life as the arch conservative of his era. He created a modern system every bit as rigorous as Schoenberg's and yet within a few years of his death that system was dropped by almost any composer still using it. And he enthusiastically embraced the idea of writing music for practical use, including children's works, and works for student instrumentalists. As a result, most people have the overwhelming impression that the composer was a prolific, well crafted, but not very inspired journeyman musician. However in Hindemith's strongest pieces this impression is exposed as the falsehood that it is. The composer could be capable of music at the highest level of inspiration, and which reached for new sonority in a most uncompromising manner.

The Kammermusik represented on this disc are products of Hindemith's first musical maturity. Written primarily in the 1920s these mini-concerti are chalk full of melodic sparkle and harmonic invention. The varied chamber orchestras in the works are dominated by wind sonorities which can't help but bring out associations with jazz and American popular music. But the beatifully crafted counterpoint harkens to the composer's love and reverence for Bach. The language is tonal, but Hindemith stretches the bonds of tonality in ways that come close to the expressionism of the Viennese school, without the accompanying hysteria and angst. Each of the concerti is characterized by the sound of its solo instrument, but they all share a formal debt to the Bach Brandenburg concerti and to American Dance Bands. The music is often quite dissonant, but at the end of the day the bright melodic material and exhuberant high spirits win over atonal anxiety.

This recording includes all of the Kammermusik concerti, along with the Kleine Kammermusik...really a suite for Wind Quintet. Chailly is magnificent in this repertoire. He does not shy away from the thorny passages but still infuses the works with high spirits and a warmth that is not usually associated with Hindemith. Highly recommended as an introduction into this composer and what makes him truly special.

I know two recordings of this concerts, this one and the played by the Ensemble Modern (RCA). Both are really outstanding, a bit more classical this one conducted by Chailly (Decca) and more modernist the german one, conducted by Markus Stenz.

Chailly conducting I based on technical perfection, great musicality and the total well-balanced presence of the orchestra, which really sounds like a soloist. The rhythm of every piece is really well chosen by Chailly, with fresh tempi conducting, a really joy for yours ears and one of the most remarkable Chailly's CDs by the critics and reviewers.

The sound is really very good and it's now available in mid price after many years very hard to find.

It's a great complement to have Ensemble Modern's version, because of the very different sound they can produce, much more like chamber music and more modern, apart of being more technical and "german".

The sound quality on this disc is good and the performances are also first rate. The inclusion of Kleine Kammermusik (the woodwind quintet) is unusual but welcome.

If you're not a Hindemith fan then this CD will be too big a dose for you. This is all early material and the influence of Stravinsky on Hindemith's early work really shows in this series, especially in kammermusik 1 where hints of Petrushka can be heard. The most popular works in this series deserve their pride of place, the first work, the wind quintet, and the cello and viola concertos. The piano and violin concertos are too much formal elegance over tunes for my taste, even as a Hindemith fan.
The organ concerto's a bit later and reflects more of the Mathis der Maler era Hindemith.

If you're just looking for the more accessible Hindemith works from this series go for another disk but if you want a solid recording of the whole cycle this is the album you want.

First things first, I am a big Hindemith fan. I am also a big fan of chamber music of all eras, so yes, this fits my tastes. Then there is the matter of the peformance and engineering, first rate. Chailly is a fine conductor and the Concertgebouw is a great orchestra. The sound is good.

Now, why would one buy this set of CDs? Answer, because Hindemith is an overlooked, underrated 20th century composer who was NOT merely a technician, or competent teacher, but a fine composer in his own right.

He saw himself in the line of Bach and the compositionally oriented Germans, and as such his music emphasizes compositional technique. But, like the composers from whom he drew inspiration, he was able to take the traditions he inherited and change them into something new and original. His music is frequently /always intellectual, so if you are looking for pure emotional experience, look elsewhere, but if you find beauty in intellect, have a listen to these.

I think part of the problem with Hindemith is that he was truly one who understood a compositional tradition, and is therefore labeled an uninspired technician by some. But what is wrong with being inspired by traditions? Bach was the same, he wrote counterpoint and was aware of the traditions from which he came. At the same time, he was an original. He used the tradition, studied the works of other composers both of his own German tradition and those of Italy and France. Then he composed high art.

Perhaps Hindemith had the misfortune of being active in a time when after more than a century of Austro-Germanic domination, composers were looking elsewhere. Trying to be "new" and "modern", and especially to break tradition. I don't think that this means that Hindemith was automatically suspect, nor should he be to those who want to explore.

My advice, if what I've said interests you, then give this a try and listen closely. If you don't like reviews like this one that draw on analogies and try to convice you to see Hindemith in a different light than the bad rap he frequently gets, so be it. Have a look at the other reveiws too, I don't disagree with any of their major points.

If you want to ease into Hindemith a little and prefer an immediate emotional orientation, then have a look at his requiem or his works for orchestra such as Mathis der Mahler. But before you dismiss Hindemith as a technician alone, please listen to his music. This CD set, along the other works I've mentioned, is one of the best places to start.

I first became aware of this music through an old Amsterdam Concertgebouw recording. I have listened to that old LP several times, and I was very excited to hear of this new up to date version. This new version stacks up very well compared to the old one I had heard. The Kammermusik No. 1 is good here, but I do prefer my old LP more on that one. Kammermusik No. 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 are all equally good on both recordings. The Kammermusik No. 5 (with Kim Kashkashian, viola) blows the other recording by Paul Doktor away. Kashkashian's imagination, tone quality and intonation are impeccable and refreshing. That track is the highlight of this compilation, and make the CD set well worth the purchase.

Kenneth Martinson, professor of Viola at University of Florida

The music in these CDs is unbelievable! Really beautiful, creative, joyous music that deserves to be thoroughly explored and enjoyed!
This album features a series of small concert like pieces for different solo instruments and chamber-sized orchestra that Hindemith called "Kammermusik". It is an interesting album because these pieces are a great example of early Hindemith's elegant neo-classicism!...(or is it "neo-baroque"?)...
Unlike the music of some other 20th century composers, Hindemith's Kammermusik is quite easy to understand. This is undoubtedly modern music but at the same time it is wonderfully creative, thoroughly enjoyable and very interesting!

Be adviced that this album has been reissued as a "Double-Decca" medium priced series CD! I've just got mine!!!

This is for sure a great sample of 20th century music. Those are pieces
that deserve to be better known and Chailly makes a jewel from this CD.
This is one from the pair of essential albums that i consider to Hindemith.
Highly recommendable.

Hindemith's series of Kammermusik (for various soloists and orchestra) generally finds the composer at his most immediately attractive, ebullient and buoyant. They are charming and sparkling works, though with plenty of forays into the grotesque, and although they are actually formally rather complex they are also easily appealing and wonderfully scored (the first installment is perhaps the first classical work to include a chromatic accordeon). Chailly's set arrived more or less simultaneously with Abbado's (which I haven't heard) and as far as I can see these two still lead the field. Chailly's Concertgebouw Orchestra is at least on top form, providing colorful, spirited and snappy performances - maneuvering the often quite complicated contrapuntal schemes with grace, wit and brilliance - and they are led by a superb array of soloists. The sound quality and notes are excellent as well, adding up to a truly rewarding, treasurable set.

The first set is a cheerful, clever, humorous and rhythmically alive suite scored for string quintet with flute, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, accordion, piano and a battery of percussion, including xylophone, a siren and a tin can filled with sand. It was followed by the light and slightly out of place though exquisite Kleine Kammermusik for wind quintet. The four installments comprising op.36 features piano, cello, viola and viola as solo instruments, respectively (here given with Ronald Brautigam, Lynn Harrell, Kim Kashkashian and Konstanty Kulka as the remarkable soloists) are dazzling, swirling, irreverent works, and I am particularly taken by the sparkling framing movements of the second and the remarkable combination of grace and spitefulness in the fourth.

The final two installments (op.46) feature the viola d'amore (Norbert Blume) and organ (Leo van Doeselaar). The viola d'amore work is spry and cheeky with a superb finale. The organ work features an imposing opening movement, but it is followed by an otherworldly, elusive second-movement and an uncomfortably dizzying finale. Both works are purged of sentimentality but the combination of sarcasm and vigor is enormously effective. In any case, this is wonderfully variegated, colorful and immensely rewarding music throughout (a sort of musical equivalent to the paintings of George Grosz, perhaps) and the set at hand can be recommended to any music lover, regardless of whatever rumors you may have heard concerning the composer.

My favorite performances of the various Kammermusik are on old lps, often very modernist and edgy. An old one with Peter Rybar as soloist comes to mind, for instance. I got this set a while ago but it is very different. There is a vigor to the readings and yet everything is played sub specie aeternitatis. Almost like a fascinating modernist filigree in the heavens. The effect is odd, but enjoyable, as if the performers -- or more likely, conductor -- had the opening filigree of Mathis der Maler in mind as a guide. Again, odd but enjoyable.

Paul Hindemith's "Kammermusik" is a diverse array of concertos in a neoclassical vein written in the 1920s. The set contains works for piano, cello, viola, viola d'amore and organ, but there's also a suite for 12 instruments and a suite for wind quintet. This set boasts a fine lineup, with Ronald Brautigam (piano), Kim Kashkashian (viola), Norbert Blume (viola d'amore), Lynn Harrell (cello) and Leo van Doeselaar (organ), and Riccardo Chailly leads the Royal Concertgebouw. The liner notes here are fairly detailed as well.

As each piece plays, the music can be satisfying enough, but I'm disappointed by how little gestalt these pieces of Hindemith have for me. I mean, I listen to a steady diet of modernist composers like Lachenmann whose music ostensibly explores isolated noises, but I still walk away from that music remembering more than anything here. For all Hindemith's pursuit of "tunes", and inspiration from popular dance music of the 1920s is undeniable, it all goes in one ear and right out the other.

I like some neoclassical music (Holmboe and Stravinsky) and I've been quite impressed by Hindemith's works for solo viola and viola and piano on an ECM disc which have some weight to them. The Kammermusik may be worth getting acquainted with if for nothing else than that the violin concerto is a key quotation in Berio's "Sinfonia", and the performers here show virtuosity, but it's pretty meh for me.