5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Works., January 24, 2005
This review is from: Paul Hindemith: Vocal Chamber Music - Christiane Oelze / Cornelia Kallisch / Ensemble Villa Musica (Audio CD)
This Cd is really a preciosity . Normally we hear the orchestral compositions of Hindemith, in Particular those with a strong Neo Classical accent. In this CD what we have is a complete different thing: now we can found one avant garde composer, with a special taste in choosing texts. The highlights of this record: The Two Song Cycles opus 23 ( a and b) . The First is a Cycle for voice, 2 violas and 2 violoncellos. The Mezzo, and these low instruments are perfect do describe in music " The deaths' death" , and it is very interesting to compare the use Hindemith did of Georg Trakl's wonderful texts in his Cycle " The young maid" with the songs opus 14 by Anton Webern . Both are very expressionists, both have a deep understanding of this wonderful poet, but the means they use is diametrical opposed. Other work very interesting is Melancholie for Soprano and String Quartet. The harmony very different , new and also with something of expressionist .
Not only the repertoire is very interesting in this CD. The performers are fantastic. Christiane Oelze recorded for Deutsche Grammophon all the music Webern wrote for Soprano . We can say she is one specialist in this kind of music. The Mezzo Cornelia Kallisch is also a fantastic singer and the musicians of this ensemble are among the bests in the world : Ingo Goritzky, Thomas Brandis, Enrique Santiago, etc.
If you want to know a more avant garde side of Hindemith this IS the CD. The works here reunited weren't written to be popular. These works are testimony of a refined musician that after 1930 became more and more conservative. Here, in works written between 1917 and 1924, he was at the peak of his creativity.
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