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Hindemith & Dvořák / Fleisher, Eschenbach, Curtis Symphony
Ondine

Hindemith & Dvořák / Fleisher, Eschenbach, Curtis Symphony

$18.99

Details

Composer
HINDEMITH DVORAK
Artist
Fleisher, Eschenbach
Format
CD
Label
Ondine
Released
Apr 28, 2005
Catalog #
ODE 1141-2
UPC
761195114124

About

REVIEW:

This is the world premiere recording of Hindemith’s Piano Music with Orchestra (piano left hand), commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein in 1922 and completed within six months. Wittgenstein—a musical reactionary—never played it; the commissioning contract gave him exclusive performance rights for his lifetime, and he prohibited anyone else from doing so. After his death in 1961, his estate ignored all requests about the piece; in fact, it had lost the score. A flawed copy of the original manuscript turned up in a Pennsylvania farmhouse in 2002 and was successfully coordinated with sketches in the Hindemith archives. Fleisher gave the first performance with the Berlin Philharmonic in December 2004. Hindemith was just emerging from his avant-garde youth at that time. The radical firebrand still shows up in three of the four movements, which are played without pause.

The introduction is aggressive, loud, and brassy, but it does suggest the more staid Hindemith to come. The second movement is filled with outbursts from a large percussion group. A mysterious slow movement features a long duet between piano and English horn, which later gives way to a flute; it is reminiscent of the aborted love scene in the composer’s 1926 opera Cardillac. Fleisher believes that the movement’s basso continuo, which consists of 12 quarter notes (repeated) and uses 11 of the 12 tones, was poking fun at Schoenberg’s recently devised dodecaphonic system. The finale returns to the wild, nose-thumbing style of Hindemith’s 1920 opera Das Nusch-Nuschi.

Fleisher “owns” the left-hand repertoire, and is in this case the unique interpreter. He convinces one listener that this is exactly how the piece should go, revealing everything it has to say. The Curtis orchestra supplies solid, reliable accompaniment. If a few solos are not quite as beautiful as those from the New York Philharmonic, Eschenbach’s views of the music seem more sensitive than Maazel’s and the students more comfortable with the 85-year-old music than the New Yorkers.

Dvorak’s “New World” is played to top professional standards—the strings are gorgeous, as is Rebekah Daley’s first-desk French horn—but I don’t find the reading very interesting. The recorded sound is merely decent and a bit congested, far from the brilliance Ondine achieved for Martinu’s Memorial to Lidice, also a live performance, but admittedly an SACD. The booklet lists every player but oddly gives no credit for English horn, despite that instrument’s important solos in both works. The program writers for both the New York Philharmonic and this disc may have had no opportunity to study Hindemith’s score or hear his music, as they concentrate on its fascinating history.

--James H. North, Fanfare

Tracklist 8 tracks

  1. 1 I. Einleitung: Massige schnelle Halbe - 02:30
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Einleitung: Massige schnelle Halbe -
    Duration
    02:30
    Composer
    Paul Hindemith
    Performer
    Leon Fleisher
    Ensemble
    Curtis Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Christoph Eschenbach
  2. 2 II. Sehr lebhafte Halbe - 03:10
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Sehr lebhafte Halbe -
    Duration
    03:10
    Composer
    Paul Hindemith
    Performer
    Leon Fleisher
    Ensemble
    Curtis Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Christoph Eschenbach
  3. 3 III. Trio: Basso ostinato - Langsame Viertel, nur sehr wenig Ausdruck - 06:43
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Trio: Basso ostinato - Langsame Viertel, nur sehr wenig Ausdruck -
    Duration
    06:43
    Composer
    Paul Hindemith
    Performer
    Leon Fleisher
    Ensemble
    Curtis Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Christoph Eschenbach
  4. 4 IV. Finale: Bewegte Halbe 05:37
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. Finale: Bewegte Halbe
    Duration
    05:37
    Composer
    Paul Hindemith
    Performer
    Leon Fleisher
    Ensemble
    Curtis Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Christoph Eschenbach
  5. 5 I. Adagio - Allegro molto 12:14
    Track
    5
    Title
    I. Adagio - Allegro molto
    Duration
    12:14
    Composer
    Antonín Dvořák
    Ensemble
    Curtis Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Christoph Eschenbach
  6. 6 II. Largo 13:53
    Track
    6
    Title
    II. Largo
    Duration
    13:53
    Composer
    Antonín Dvořák
    Ensemble
    Curtis Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Christoph Eschenbach
  7. 7 III. Molto vivace 07:55
    Track
    7
    Title
    III. Molto vivace
    Duration
    07:55
    Composer
    Antonín Dvořák
    Ensemble
    Curtis Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Christoph Eschenbach
  8. 8 IV. Allegro con fuoco 11:58
    Track
    8
    Title
    IV. Allegro con fuoco
    Duration
    11:58
    Composer
    Antonín Dvořák
    Ensemble
    Curtis Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Christoph Eschenbach