First Edition Music and the Louisville
Orchestra were a pioneering partnership
which specialised in recordings of music
by modern composers in the late 1940s
and 1950s. Looking at the Louisville
Orchestra’s current programming this
is sadly no longer the case. This compilation
consists of recordings re-issued from
the original First Edition LP catalogue,
and the booklet usefully reprints the
entire commentary from each album. The
CD has been mastered from the original
master tapes which I’m sure is true,
though marginal rumble, some ticks (and
is that end of side distortion?) on
the soundtrack of Op.48 leads me to
suspect some jiggery-pokery with a disc
rather than a tape. The recordings are
generally fine for their time with rich
bass, crisp treble sound and minimal
tape hiss – more on some of the drawbacks
later.
The booklet accurately
states, ‘Some audiences, desiring musical
conservatism, find Hindemith’s work
overly radical; others, seeking radicalism,
find him too conservative.’ It is certainly
unfair and ignorant of composition students
to mention his name with the same inflection
as they might mention food poisoning
or skin disease. The music here is rewarding
on many levels. Hindemith’s mastery
of orchestration and compositional technique
are always evident but never dryly academic,
and the results ooze quality to which
many aspire but few achieve. Harmonically
inventive and intellectually stimulating,
Hindemith is not without influence on
some contemporary composers. Take the
piano solo about 3:15 into the second
movement of Kammermusik: I’ll
bet my collection of exotic Belgian
beer glasses that the origin of one
of Stockhausen’s ‘Tierkreis’ music boxes
can be found right here.
All three pieces were
recorded in the same venue, but there
could be hardly more difference in recording
approach and result. Kammermusik
has a fairly natural perspective,
excellent piano sound (though the instrument
could have done with re-tuning) and
detail which can rival current digital
issues. The Concerto is pretty
much what you would expect from a more
recent recording, though with multi-miking
some instruments (high piccolo for instance)
occasionally pop embarrassingly out
of the texture like flesh bulbs at an
award ceremony. The Concert Music
is the least fortunate here. It
is marked as a World Première
recording, which is nice, and the orchestra
sets in promisingly. The viola solo
seems however to have been placed in
a separate recording booth and given
improbable levels of nasty, ringing
reverb, while the orchestra is left
to drift around somewhere out in the
distance while the solo instrument fills
the soundstage. I often quite enjoy
1960s stereo techniques, with instrumental
groups sometimes placed far left or
right in order to heighten the effect.
The orchestra certainly sounds fine
during tuttis. It is a shame that the
‘swimming pool’ acoustic of the soloist
effectively drowns much of the fine
orchestral playing, and this particular
recording won’t stand up to much repeated
hearing.
Caveats aside, this
is a useful compilation which is worth
seeking out. The works are all very
well played, with an unmannered lightness
of touch which brings out genuinely
expressive moments, and even some humour
on occasion. The magnificent and sensitive
piano playing of Lee Luvisi should also
receive a mention here. The Louisville
Orchestra has a close connection with
this music (they commissioned work from
Hindemith), and the whole thing has
a spirited, almost ‘recorded in the
presence of the composer’ feel, though
I’m sure he would have had something
to say about that solo viola sound.
Dominy Clements
Lee Luvisi (piano) 
