Paul Hindemith - String Quartets Vol. 1 (Amar Quartet)

Information

Composer: Paul Hindemith

• String Quartet No. 2 in F minor, Op. 10
• String Quartet No. 3 in C major, Op. 16

Amar Quartet

    Anna Brunner, violin

    Igor Keller, violin

    Hannes Bärtschi, viola

    Péter Somodari, cello

Date: 2012

Label: Naxos

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Review

Eighty-one years after the Amar Quartet gave the first performance of Paul Hindemith's String Quartet in C, op.16, up they pop again, as youthful as ever, to kick off a new Naxos edition of the complete Quartets. In fact Hindemith's original ensemble was dissolved in 1929, whereas this Zurich-based Amar Quartet was formed in homage to Hindemith by Swiss violinist Anna Brunner in 1987!

 

For reasons to do with his complicated, portentous and perhaps not always cohesive theoretical writings on music and society, and his strong dislike of the 1950s avant-garde, Hindemith's music has not always had an easy time of it from critics, and quartets have played their part in the neglect of his music, leaving relatively few recordings available to date. Yet Hindemith's String Quartets are among his most instantly accessible music, even in the Third, with which he firmed up his credentials among contemporaries as a modernist. The two works in this first volume follow in the tradition of Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms: well proportioned, basically tonal with tuneful dissonance and growing chromaticism.

 

Incredibly, Hindemith wrote his Second Quartet in 1918 as a soldier on the battlefields of the First World War. Though he kept a diary in which he described the horrors he experienced, there is barely a hint of gloom in what is in fact a very attractive work of considerable inspiration and aspiration - truly a form of escapism. The C major follow-up is ironically more austere, but the dazzling, Janáček-like finale is nothing of the kind. Hindemith's part-writing is unremittingly inventive, almost breathtaking in its scope and intricacy. Even the Third remains quite approachable, and a good starting-point from which to explore his impending, slightly weird but eminently fascinating 'Neue Sachlichkeit' ('New Objectivity') period.

 

The Amar Quartet give an excellent account of these works - it is hard to believe Hindemith's old team could have done it better. All four members face and pass many technically challenging passages, and succeed also in imbuing Hindemith's not always outwardly expressive works with a good deal of warmth and intensity. Twenty-five years on, co-founder Anna Brunner is somehow still only forty years old!

 

Sound quality is very good throughout. The Third is more closely miked, making performer inhalations a little more audible. The notes by German musicologist Giselher Schubert give a well written, detailed account of the music, although the opening sentence is baloney: "Paul Hindemith was the first composer of string quartets since Spohr (1784-1859) who was also an outstanding violinist and viola player". Respighi, Ysaÿe and Lalo had evidently slipped his mind, among others.

 

If this first disc is anything to go by, this will be a must-have cycle for all lovers of 20th century music.

 

— Byzantion

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Paul Hindemith (16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963) was a German composer and theorist. Studied in Frankfurt, he gained early experience as a violinist and became a prominent composer by the late 1920s. His works range from chamber music and song cycles to operas such as Mathis der Maler. He taught in Turkey, the United States and Switzerland. Opposed to twelve-tone techniques, he sought to revitalize tonality, developing his own harmonic theory, outlined in The Craft of Musical Composition. Hindemith also promoted Gebrauchsmusik ("utility music"), viewing composers as craftsmen serving social needs

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The Amar Quartet, currently comprising Anna Brunner, Matthias Alexander Bruns, Izabel Markova and Xavier Pignat, is an internationally recognized ensemble closely associated with the legacy of Paul Hindemith. Named in honor of Hindemith's original 1922 quartet, the group has demonstrated a strong commitment to his works, including recording all seven string quartets for Naxos. The quartet has established a prominent presence in Switzerland through initiatives such as the "Homage to Hindemith" festival. Trained by the Alban Berg Quartet, they actively contribute to music education through masterclasses worldwide.

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