MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


 
REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS
Download: Classicsonline


Paul HINDEMITH (1895-1963)
Quartet for Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano (1938) [27:50]
Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1939) [18:43]
Drei leichte Stüke for Cello and Piano (1938) [6:24]
Quintet for Clarinet, two Violins, Viola, and Cello, Op.30 (1955) [20:34]
Annette von Hehn and Elisabeth Glass (violins); Hartmut Rohde (viola); Frank Dodge (cello); Lars Wouters van den Oudenweijer (clarinet); Ya-Fei Chuang (piano)
rec. Siemens Villa, Berlin, Germany, 10-11 March 2009. Stereo. DDD
NAXOS 8.572213 [73:31]

Experience Classicsonline



Hindemith’s music has been more susceptible than most to the changing currents of musical taste since the war. He was certainly a versatile composer, as the stylistic range of the works on this disc demonstrates. That said, the English-speaking world has yet to embrace the composer in the same way as German audiences, apprehensive of both his reputation for dispassionate Modernism and the openly functional nature of his educational works. 
This recording does little to dispel those prejudices. Each work presents a different perspective on the composer’s inner dialectic between Brahmsian Romantic expression and 20th century austerity. In the first work, the Quartet for Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano (1938), the two forces compete as expressive linear melody versus ice-cold clarity of ensemble. Hindemith’s use of instrumental colour to separate these lines is masterful, and is never taken to excess, giving the unusual grouping a sense of inner logic. The clarinet is the instrument that links nearly all the works on this disc, but it is Hindemith’s use of the strings, the violin and especially the cello, that really elevates this music. The cello has a natural expressivity that forms the ideal complement to Hindemith’s austerity. The cellist here is Frank Dodge, the founder of Spectrum Concerts Berlin, at which the recording was made. He brings both an elegant tone and a suppleness of phrasing to this music, and his playing across the range of the instrument is well served by the recorded sound - courtesy of German Radio.

The Sonata for Clarinet and Piano of 1939 comes from the composer’s impressive and still unmatched series of sonatas for every instrument of the orchestra. What is fascinating to me about this music is how difficult it is to gauge its indebtedness to Brahms. He is certainly there, in the wide-ranging clarinet part, the way that phrases occasionally tail off with a sigh, and the disciplined yet atmospheric accompaniment figurations. This is another fine performance, well balanced, musically phrased, and finding a surprising amount of expressive potential in Hindemith’s occasionally Spartan textures.

The Three Easy Pieces for Cello and Piano from 1938 is a curious inclusion. It is very much an educational work, gebrauchsmusik in the strictest sense. As such, I can’t help feeling that it would be better suited to an exam syllabus than a chamber music recording. On the other hand, Hindemith himself was committed to the principle that functionality and artistry need not be mutually exclusive in music. But whatever the justification for their inclusion, these brief works are convincingly rendered, Frank Dodge again putting his seductive cello tone at Hindemith’s service.

The final work on the disc is the Quintet for Clarinet, two Violins, Viola and Cello Op. 30. This work was written in 1923, but substantially revised for its first publication in 1955. It is substantially more complex than the other works on the disc, with five movements alternating fast and slow. The faster movements present a range of prickly textures, the first in particular combining pizzicato strings, driving ostinatos and an erratic clarinet line. The slow movements have a delicacy that is rare in Hindemith’s music, with expressive solos supported by the barest minimum of supporting textures.

Overall, the disc is well performed and well recorded. The packaging conforms to recent Naxos conventions, and like Hindemith himself, the company is apparently unconcerned about compromising artistic principles with bare functionality. Clarinettists may be interested in the works on this CD, and Hindemith’s important contributions to the instrument’s chamber repertoire are excellently served here. But for a composer who divides opinion so sharply, this disc is unlikely to win any new converts to his cause. At the end of the day, you either love it or Hindemith.  

Gavin Dixon

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.