Hindemith: Orchestral Works

Album review

No, this is not a re-edit, but really a brand new recording – January 2017 – made by the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and Marek Janowski. In addition to the vigorous and explosive Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, the theme in question stemming from Schiller’s version of Gozzi’s Turandot, the recording also features the rarer – and much less “fun” – Nobilissima visione suite. In the initial eponymous ballet from which the suite is derived, Hindemith depicted in musical tones a few episodes of the life of Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi. The last movement depicts, provided such a text can even be depicted, the Canticle of the Sun; Hindemith turns it into an immense and intense passacaglia that instead of actually “telling” the Canticle, manages to convey its sheer grandeur. The album closes on another splendour, Konzertmusik for Brass and String Orchestra, Op. 50 from 1930, as ordered by Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Orchestra. In the great polyphonic tradition, the composer “opposes” groups, in this case the brass – 4 trumpets, 4 horns, 3 trombones, 1 tuba – and the strings (for which the partition requires the largest possible headcount), resulting in a fantastic musical, contrapuntal and architectural richness, not to mention a touch of humour in the race between both ensembles in the second part, as the brass play a rather quirky waltz with jazzy accents and the strings a much more “serious” style is adopted. For anyone barely familiar with Hindemith, these two latest works are a must-have, and more than likely a true revelation! © SM/Qobuz