This Jitka Hosprová homage honors Paul Hindemith (1895-1963); a composer and virtuoso violist who wrote all his viola works within twenty years or so and then abandoned composing for the instrument for good. The pieces featured here also bear witness to Hindemith’s journey from reverberations of Romanticism and Impressionism to attaining his own singular musical language, already evident in Sonata Op. 25. This music remains profound and colorful, as is the viola itself.

An impressive survey of Hindemith's mature piano music, beautifully recorded.

This generously filled two disc set contains Hindemith's most mature works for one and two pianos. This demanding but rewarding music is still unknown to the majority of music-lovers. Glenn Gould recorded the Piano Sonatas in the 1960s; more recently, the Estonian pianist Kalle Randalu presented them on MDG. The principal rivals in Ludus Tonalis are John McCabe (Hyperion) and Boris Berezovsky (Warner Classics).
 
The three Sonatas were written in quick succession in 1936 and are, as a consequence, stylistically consistent. The First and Third require a virtuoso technique and are written in a grand manner that seems to hark back to both Bach and Beethoven. The Second Sonata is less ambitious, yet perhaps ultimately more persuasive than its weightier brothers. Bernard Roberts offers playing of real power and authority. The imposing second movement of the First Sonata has plenty of gravitas in this performance. The finale is the weakest part of the First Sonata; it is simply far too long and becomes wearisome towards the end. Roberts does his best here to hold the movement together and his interpretation is impressive.
 
The Third Sonata is the most classical of the three and follows the standard four movement pattern. The movements are more successfully balanced than in the First Sonata and the fugal finale comes off very well here, with Roberts achieving the right blend of momentum and clarity.
 
For me, the Second Piano Sonata is the real gem of the three. It is absolutely charming and instantly memorable. This music makes it clear why so many English composers were attracted to Hindemith's music in the mid-Twentieth Century. The appealing blend of neo-classicism, nobility and perky humour suited the age. Kenneth Leighton shows the influence of the German master in the outer movements of his two early Piano Sonatinas, not to mention his Fantasia Contrappuntistica. Walton, Tippett, Rawsthorne and Arnold Cooke all owe something to Hindemith as well. Even Vaughan Williams' Eighth Symphony has elements of the Hindemith style in its Scherzo second movement. Bernard Roberts plays the Second Sonata with much affection, particularly the lovely opening of the finale.
In the Sonata for Piano, Four Hands, Roberts is joined by David Strong and this musical partnership works splendidly. The faster moments in particular are despatched with considerable flair. Strong also takes part in the Sonata for Two Pianos, which receives a distinguished performance. The gamelan-like effects in the first movement are very successfully realised by both players and the second movement is also a great success, with rhythms nicely pointed. The finale is, like the First Piano Sonata, rather on the long-winded side, but the pianists make this movement sound as convincing as possible.
 
Roberts' performance of Ludus Tonalis is worthy to rank with the two superb rival versions listed above. Roberts offers playing of great nobility. He refuses to sentimentalise the more expressive sections of the work and the piece benefits hugely as a result. Fugue II is strikingly close in style to early Tippett ( Little Music for Strings). Interludium VIII offers a refreshing change of texture with its brilliant toccata-like figurations. Other parts, such as Fugue XI are less inspired musically, but the Postlude provides a suitably moving conclusion. If I had any criticism to make of Roberts' performance, it would be that he sometimes misses the humour in this music. Interludium III and Fugue IX would almost certainly benefit from a less strait-laced approach. Nevertheless, Roberts' performance is, as a whole, a notable achievement. For those listeners interested primarily in Ludus Tonalis, the choice of version will largely depend on the coupling; both McCabe and Berezowsky offer just the Suite 1922 on a single disc. Roberts' inclusion of the three Piano Sonatas, in such commanding performances, may well settle the matter in his favour.
 
These discs are well recorded and the performances are consistently of the highest calibre. There is also a superb booklet note by Calum MacDonald. An enthusiastic endorsement for this Nimbus set.
 
-- David Jenning, MusicWeb International

This enterprising disc contains all of Hindemith's chamber music featuring solo cello either alone or in combination with piano. The pieces cover a wide stylistic range, from the spiky, dissonant neo-classicism of the early sonata Op. 11 No. 3, to the warmer, almost Romantic work written in 1948. The humorous variations for cello and piano on the English nursery tune "A frog he went a-courting" ought to become an encore staple of chamber recitals. A string player himself, Hindemith clearly knew how to show off the cello to best effect. Even the comparatively difficult works have a fluency and musical logic that proves compelling at first listen, and none of them overstay their welcome. A lot of the credit for this music's favorable impression belongs with the cellist, Wendy Warner. Her accurate intonation and warm, singing tone prove a constant source of delight, and she's ably partnered by pianist Eileen Buck. These two superb players demonstrate conclusively that the success of so much of Hindemith's music really depends on sympathetic performance. Bridge's sonics flatter the music and the players. An excellent disc in every respect. [11/30/1999] --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

HINDEMITH: Mathis der Maler / Symphonic Metamorphosis

Born in Hanau near Frankfurt-am-Main in 1895, where he was something of a musical prodigy, Hindemith entered Hoch’sche Konservatorium where he studied violin, composition and conducting. He supported himself by playing in local dance bands and theatre groups. He soon made his mark as a performer and became deputy leader of the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra at the age of nineteen, becoming its leader three years later.

His early compositional style earned him the reputation of something of an enfant térrible. Whilst his music is modernist in outlook, he rejected some of the modern trends in music, including the teachings of Schoenberg, who he admired, in favour of a more individualistic outlook. In 1921 he had his String Quartet Op. 16 and his Kammermusik No. 1 performed at the Donaueschingen festival of contemporary music. This was followed by further performances of his music the following year at the International Society of Contemporary Music festival which served to bring Hindemith and his music to the attention of a wider audience.

The music presented on these two CDs seems to have been performed as part of the centenary celebrations of Hindemith’s birth during the 1995 Schwetzingen Festival. This is a well planned and executed concert which brings together two of his better known pieces with two of his less well known theatrical works.

Der Dämon or "The Demon" is described as "A Dance-Pantomime" and is set in two scenes, revolving around the said Demon's seduction of two sisters. In the first scene he seduces the first sister, leading the second sister into a Dance of Grief and Longing. The second scene deals with the second sister's advances towards the Demon and his rejection of her. I really enjoyed this performance. This is a work known for its more jazzy elements, and the Ensemble Varianti highlight this aspect far more than the Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt under Werner Andreas Albert on CPO (999 220-2) whose performance is more symphonic.

The Kammermusik No. 2 is in reality a mini piano concerto and marks the first in a six-part series of solo concertos which Hindemith completed in 1927. It has a highly virtuosic obbligato piano part and is in itself quite dramatic; it is believed that Hindemith composed his The Four Temperaments in order to stop George Balanchine re-working the Kammermusik No. 2 as a ballet presentation.

Herodiade which is a Ballet – Orchestral Recitation after Mallarmé, is the latest work presented here and displays greater maturity. It is available in two versions, one with recitation, and one purely orchestral. The one presented here has the wonderful Gisela Zach-Westphal whose declamation is far more dramatic than Ann Gicquel for Albert on CPO (999 220-2), although I do prefer his more orchestral sound and he does present both versions.

The final work on the disc is a spirited performance of the Kammermusik No. 1 with its famous finale entitled 1921 and siren-call ending. This was the piece that really announced Hindemith on the world-stage. Both of the Kammermusiks are given performances here that bring out the chamber music aspect more than in the other versions I have, Albert on CPO (999 301-2, 999 138-2) and Chailly on Decca (473 722-2). Even so, each version has a lot to offer.

These four works all have a significant role for the piano and here Florian Henschel is on top form, especially when you take into account that he was a late replacement for Sviatoslav Richter. His playing is strong and impassioned and he seems to make light of some fiendish sounding piano writing. As mentioned above, the Ensemble Varianti are excellent and really bring out the different colours in the music. As for Gisela Zach-Westphal she makes this disc worth buying just for her part in Herodiade. Whilst I knew that Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau also liked to dabble in conducting, especially towards the end of his singing career, this is the first disc I have of him in this role. He manages to keep a tight control on his forces whilst not losing any excitement from the music. First rate performances.

The sound is clearly from a live event; you get the applause and one or two coughs. There is also a slight string twang that I am sure is not in the score. Despites this, these are performances that are full of thrilling and energetic playing. I would have loved to have attended this concert. The booklet essay is exemplary; it is detailed and informative and fills in a couple of blanks in my knowledge of this composer.

– MusicWeb International (Stuart Sillitoe)

Das Nusch-Nuschi as a lose series of relatively self-contained sections of which some recur in the manner of a Rondo, while "Sancta Susanna" is given a variation form. All the special characteristics of the three operas are nevertheless composed with reference to each other. If they are separated, and each piece is taken as an absolute, misunderstandings necessarily arise concerning Hindemith's meaning. "Das Nusch-Nuschi" represents in the context of the triptych a high-spirited burlesque; in his music Hindemith not only depicted the witty, obscene, and parodistic moments present already in the text, but also intensified them. In this way he created a score as drastic as it is rich in allusions; in which at any moment suggestions, associations, or references may become concrete through literal quotation. It is music about modern music at the turn of the century, in which Hindemith even parodies particular stylistic aspects he himself utilized in "Murder, Hope of Woman". "Das Nusch-Nuschi" is Hindemith's most virtuoso orchestral score. The virtuosity and masterful artistic refinement of the score is all the more disturbing, even disruptive and irritating, because here Hindemith is setting a frivolous, light-weight text as a parody.

Using the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, Hindemith first completed Das Marienleben (The Life of Mary) in 1923 and it occupies a key position in his output, marking a transition from avant garde Expressionism to his mature neo-classical style. He regarded the cycle as "the best thing I have yet written", an affection retained through painstaking revisions over subsequent years. Hindemith responded to Rilke's imagery with truly moving music that ranges from tenderness and hushed emotion to sweeping dramatic power, the 1948 version transforming his youthful songs into "an organic masterpiece ranking with the great song-cycles".

There have been too few recordings of this magnificent song cycle, so it doesn't mean as much as it should to say that this is easily the finest of them. Hindemith recognized the importance of this music, and it haunted him throughout his life. The opening bars announcing the birth of Mary occur not only throughout the work (most notably in The Birth of Christ and On the Death of Mary III) but in many other pieces as well--such as the slow movement of the Cello Concerto and the Symphony in E-flat. They became Hindemith's personal leitmotif. And then of course, there's Rilke's gorgeous poetry, lovely in the original German, and grotesque in R.G.L. Barrett's 1923 translation (included in the booklet). I mean, when the last two words of The Birth of Christ--"Er erfreut" ("he rejoices")--come out as "He gladdeneth", then you know you're in trouble.

Never mind. Soile Isokoski has the perfect voice for this music. Her silvery soprano and impeccable accuracy of pitch give Hindemith's difficult vocal lines the lyrical intensity that he intended. Whether it's the lightness of "The Annunciation to the Shepherds", the darkly tragic "Pietà", or the jubilant concluding poem, Isokoski captures every nuance of the text while at the same time retaining that special, slightly understated intimacy of expression that both the poetry and the music demand. Pianist Marita Viitasalo is very much an equal partner in the proceedings, projecting Hindemith's often bare and potentially clunky writing (c.f. "On the Wedding at Cana") with unflagging elegance and limpid tone. Sensual this music is not, but it often is very beautiful. Neither the performers nor Ondine's perfectly clear, ideally balanced sonics ever let us lose sight of this fact. A great disc!

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

HINDEMITH Konzertmusik for Piano, Brass, and Two Harps, op. 49. The Four Temperaments. Piano Music with Orchestra (for Piano Left Hand), op. 29. Kammermusik No. 2 for Piano, Quartet, and Brass, op. 36/1. Piano Concerto • Idil Biret (pn); Toshiyuki Shimada, cond; Yale SO • NAXOS 8.573201-02 (2 CDs: 136:15)


Idil Biret will be no stranger to readers; as one of Naxos’s most reliable house artists, she has recorded vast amounts of the piano repertoire for the label. The works on this two-CD set, however, may not be as familiar as she is. With the exception of The Four Temperaments , which has gained somewhat of a foothold on record and as a concert work—Hindemith was originally commissioned by George Balanchine in 1940 to produce a score for a ballet—the other four works on these discs may be new to all but those who are Hindemith devotees.


The title of the album, The Complete Piano Concertos , stretches the definition a bit of what constitutes a concerto, but Hindemith’s habit of writing for unusual combinations of instruments and setting them in somewhat unorthodox forms can make classifying his works subject to interpretation.


The program opens with the Konzertmusik for Piano, Brass, and Two Harps, commissioned by Elizabeth Coolidge Sprague and composed in 1930. The brass instruments called for in the “Brass” of the work’s title are four horns, three trumpets, two trombones, and tuba. In four movements, the piece is best described as being in Hindemith’s neobaroque style.


The Theme with Four Variations for Piano and Strings, commonly referred to as just The Four Temperaments , though originally intended to be choreographed for a ballet, works well as a concert piece because essentially it can be seen as a four-movement symphony with an introduction. The introduction in this case is the statement of the theme. Four variations (movements) follow, each representing one of the four temperaments or medieval humors—black bile for the melancholic, blood for the sanguine, phlegm for the phlegmatic, and yellow bile for the choleric. The bodily fluids are enough to conjure a scene from the embalming room in a mortuary, but Hindemith’s music is full of life and gorgeous sonorities.


As mentioned above, this is the main work in which Biret and the Yale Symphony Orchestra’s strings run into some significant competition in the numbers game. Two versions that have been long on my shelf are those by Carol Rosenberger with the strings of the Royal Philharmonic on Delos and Howard Shelley with the strings of BBC Philharmonic on Chandos. Biret on the present recording acquits herself well in the solo piano part, but the string players of the Yale orchestra, an ensemble made up of the university’s undergraduate students don’t play with quite the coordination and richness of tone as do their professional counterparts across the Pond.


Hindemith, like Ravel, was commissioned to write a piano work for the left hand by Paul Wittgenstein, the pianist who lost his right arm in the First World War. Quite a few other composers were enlisted in the enterprise as well, including Britten, Kornold, Prokofiev, and Richard Strauss. They all complied, but Wittgenstein ended up not performing all the works he solicited. Hindemith’s contribution was Piano Music with Orchestra (for Piano Left Hand) composed in 1923. It has gained nowhere near the exposure of Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand; in fact, at the moment ArkivMusic lists only one other recording besides this one, a 2008 live performance by Leon Fleisher with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra led by Christoph Eschenbach.


The Hindemith is a captivating score with a perky, jazzy first movement; a catchy, ostinato-driven second movement that periodically lapses into march-like, military fanfares; a haunting third movement in which the piano and a solo English horn (then later a solo flute) engage in a long, slow, lonely dance; and a Finale that once again is in the composer’s best neobaroque style.


The Kammermusik No. 2, for Piano, Quartet, and Brass, is the second in a series of seven Kammermusik works Hindemith promised to deliver to conductor Hermann Scherchen, who took an interest in promoting new music by contemporary composers of the period. It’s a bit difficult to categorize these works, for no two of them are scored for the same combination of instruments, but all of them feature a solo instrument and a varied ensemble of 11 or more players. Because the solo instrument—whether piano, cello, violin, viola, viola d’amore, or organ—is treated as it would be in a concerto, the seven works are loosely classified as chamber concertos, but the number of instruments in the orchestra pushes the definition of “chamber.” To confuse matters further, sandwiched in between the first and third of these seven Kammermusik scores, is a lone stray, if you will, that goes by the title, Kleine Kammermusik , so-called because it is scored for wind quintet with no soloist; yet it’s sometimes lumped together with its larger-scaled Kammermusik cousins.


All together then there are eight of these works, but the only recorded version I’m aware of that includes the whole shebang—and it’s an outstanding one—is the two-disc set by Riccardo Chailly leading members of the Royal Concertgebouw on Decca. If one or more readers are wondering why I’m omitting the equally excellent set by Claudio Abbado with members of the Berlin Philharmonic on EMI, it’s because that set, as well as all the others listed, include only the seven Kammermusik entries. Abbado fills out his set leading violist Tabea Zimmermann in an incomparably beautiful performance of Hindemith’s Der Schwanendreher . But Chailly’s set, as far as I know, is unique in being the only one to include the lone Kleine Kammermusik score for wind quintet.


Perhaps it’s the other surveys that make more sense, because the Kleine Kammermusik is really a fish out of water that doesn’t go with the seven Kammermusik works. Still, it’s too delightful a piece to be without, and stand-alone recordings of it are mostly included on programs of wind quintet works by a mix of composers, though one, on Sony, does offer an all-Hindemith program of the composer’s other wind works.


Most of the Kammermusik scores fall into Hindemith’s neobaroque style, for which reason they have sometimes been branded the “ Brandenburg s of the 20th century.” I wouldn’t push that analogy too far, though, for it may be apt to the extent that the writing is contrapuntal in nature and that each concerto is scored for a different combination of instruments, but in harmonic, rhythmic, and textural makeup the music is very Modernistic. This is not the type of neobaroque treatment one hears in a work like Stravinsky’s Pulcinella , which really is based on late Baroque and very early Classical models.


Finally, we come to Hindemith’s formally titled Piano Concerto of 1945, premiered by George Szell, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the pianist for whom the piece was written, Jesús Maria Sanromá. Hindemith composed the Concerto while vacationing in Maine and Connecticut. Of the five works on the disc, this is the latest written and, frankly, if you’re not already familiar with the piece, it’s the one that’s likely to take three or four hearings before you warm to it. It’s not that its musical language is any more Modernistic or difficult to comprehend than what has gone before; rather, it’s that the work seems to proceed episodically, with sections following each other that don’t seem, on the surface at least, to relate. Thus, the logic of the score is elusive.


Current competition is slim, and what there is of it is mostly not very current, with a 1948 performance led by Sergiu Celibidache and a First Edition recording by the Louisville Orchestra led by Lawrence Leighton Smith. The most recent version—aside from the one at hand—is by Werner Andreas Albert leading the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra on CPO, and even that one dates back more than a decade.


For Hindemith fans, this new Naxos collection of the composer’s complete works featuring a solo piano in combination with various instrumental ensembles will make an excellent addition to your collection, even if you already have some of these works on other recordings. For Hindemith novices and the curious, at Naxos’s bargain prices, this new two-disc set offers much very attractive and enjoyable music in excellent performances, and it may just inspire you to explore more of Hindemith’s output. Recommended.


FANFARE: Jerry Dubins

Recording information: Siemens Villa, Berlin, Germany (03/10/2009-03/11/2009).

An accomplished performer on the viola, piano, and clarinet, Paul Hindemith used to brag that he could play any instrument in the orchestra with a little practice. Over the course of his prolific career, the German composer proved that he could write for any instrument as well, and that very notion became something of a mission for him- to ensure that each instrument had its share of solo repertoire. Convergent Winds, a new recording from Oberlin Music, showcases five sonatas Hindemith wrote for woodwinds. It features performances by a host of esteemed Oberlin Conservatory faculty: clarinetist Richard Hawkins, pianist James Howsmon, flutist Alexa Still, oboist and English hornist Robert Walters, and retired bassoonist George Skakeeny. The works were written between 1936- a time when Hindemith’s music was banned from performance in Nazi Germany- to 1942, by which time he has resettled in America. For Howsmon, a longtime professor of instrumental accompanying at Oberlin, the recording pays tribute to an exacting neoclassicist whose music has unfairly fallen out of fashion. “Rather than being a huge innovator, Hindemith took his inspiration from past eras, and yet he had a really wonderful approach to it,” Howsmon says. “He took old models and made them look new, and no matter how wild he gets, you can always find where his starting point was, and it was always 150 years before. He’s like a master furniture builder- a total craftsman. There have been others who have done that, of course, but to me he is the best of them.

Joseph Keilberth (1908-68) was, according to Brigitte Fassbaender, "the most aesthetic, most natural, most serene of all conductors". Martha Mödl "always found him the greatest", for Hermann Prey "he was and is the trend-setting musician of my singing life" and for Inge Borck simply "the singer’s conductor". He was an exemplary incarnation of the ideal virtues of the German Kapellmeister and died far too early at the conductor's podium during a 'Tristan' performance. His recordings of works by Reger, Pfitzner and Hindemith are legendary for the transparent and vital realization of their complex structures.

Among the archival treasures of the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra (now the WDR Symphony Orchestra), unsurpassed recordings of complex 20th-century masterpieces (1923-62) have been selected for this double album, decisively enriching the orchestral repertoire. Album 1 features the Concerto grosso for double orchestra and piano, the singular pioneering work by Heinrich Kaminski, the mystical master of the new polyphony, as well as Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling's Partita, which timelessly transforms the Bachian tradition. On album 2, two recording premieres by Karl Höller (1907-87) are followed by late Hindemith, Keilberth's favourite composer: Agnes Giebel sings the 6 songs from 'Ein Marienleben', and Anton Heiller, the soloist of the premiere performance under Hindemith, plays in the late organ concerto.

From the bracing dynamism of the ealrier quartets to the technical sophistication of the later works, Paul Hindemith's seven String Quartets include some of his supreme chamber music masterpieces and form one of the 20th century's greatest quartet cycles. The award-winning Amar Quartet is named after Hindemith's own eminent ensemble of the 1920's, and their acclaimed performances explore and express every aspect of the composer's passion and intellectual rigor in this genre. ClassicsToday.com considers these recordings "outstanding...an endless source of pleasure...there is little doubt that this will become the reference edition in this music."

The final volume of Paul Hindemith’s(1895–1963) youthful and fresh Kammermusik series from the 1920s includes Kammermusik Nos. 4–7 performed by Kronberg Academy Soloists and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra under a true Hindemith specialist, Christoph Eschenbach, who has won a Grammy for a previous Hindemith album on Ondine.

These four works by Hindemith can be considered as full-bodied concertos for violin, viola, viola d’amore and organ. These work feature four young talented soloists, Stephen Waarts, Rimothy Ridout, Ziyu Shenand Christian Schmitt. Hindemith’s Kammermusik No. 4 (‘Violin Concerto’) is scored for a larger orchestra than its three predecessors and includes 24 instrumentalists. Kammermusik No. 5 (‘Viola Concerto’) the composer premiered himself by playing the solo part. In total, Hindemith performed this work for 85 times during the next 11 years! In a letter, Hindemith described the viola d’amore as “the most beautiful thing that you can imagine in sound”. The composer fell in love with the instrument and wrote his Kammermusik No. 6 with this instrument in mind. Hindemith’s final Kammermusik (No. 7) was written to a commission by the Southwest German Radio: the premiere of this Organ Concerto was transmitted live in 1928. The radio broadcast had a decisive role in the composer’s choice of instrumentation.

REVIEWS:

As in Vol 1, Eschenbach relishes the music’s wild iconoclasm. Tempos are again lively and throughout he draws marvellous playing from the Kronberg Academy strings and Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra’s winds (the trumpet not least!) and percussion.

– Gramophone

Have I mentioned that these are some of Hindemith’s most wonderful pieces? They combine the brash gestures of his early, avant-garde period with the serious, neo-Baroque elements of his later music—one can hear him changing from 1922 to 1927 in these seven pieces—several of the slow movements approach the meditative depths of his “Mathis der Maler” Symphony. I still recommend the Chailly set as a first choice, but Hindemith fanciers will want this one too.

– Fanfare

Paul Hindemith belongs to the most original and interesting composers of the twentieth century. Once described by the Boston Globe as a “20th-century Brahms”, Hindemith wrote music that is Modernist in its rhythmic audacity and colourful orchestration, but simultaneously inspired by Classical forms and styles. The WDR Symphony Orchestra and conductor Marek Janowski provide a fascinating interpretation of three orchestral works that display an irrepressible, almost wild passion for music-making that is omnipresent throughout Hindemith’s oeuvre. In the Concert Music for Strings and Brass, also known as “Boston Symphony,” Hindemith invigorates the century-old concertato style of competing instrument groups in twentieth-century fashion by utilizing unusual ensemble combinations. He extracted the Nobilissima Visione suite from an eponymous “dance legend” on Saint Francis’s vision of the three allegories of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The piece represents the violent battle in which Francis is wounded, but most of the music is serene, focusing on the noblest vision that the wounded Francis subsequently experiences. The Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber were also conceived as a ballet, but eventually materialized as a concert piece. Hindemith based the work on a collection of melodies that Carl Maria von Weber once wrote for a theatre performance of Friedrich Schiller’s Turandot. Weber’s rather simple chinoiserie dating from 1809 is driven forward relentlessly by Hindemith’s rhythms and jazzy harmonies. The piece epitomizes Hindemith’s capacity to reconcile the old and new in a highly personal musical language.

-----

REVIEW:

Hindemith's Symphonic Metamorphosis is the most immediately attractive of his works. Its biggest performance challenge is remaining true to the score's written-in clarity, and it's one met by Janowski and the orchestra here. Overall, this is a revealing combination of absorbing works.
– Gramophone