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JANSMUSIC RECOMMENDED RECORDING
Kurt Weill: String Quartets;
Paul Hindemith: MinimaxI was really pleased to discover this CD because, like a lot of people, I really only think of Weill in conjunction with singers like Ute Lemper, strutting her stuff in Surabaya Johnny et al, and to my absolute delight the Hindemith Minimax is tucked on the end.
The 2 string quartets on the CD by Weill are the sum total of his efforts for these forces. The note tells me that the first, without an opus number but written in 1918, was no more than a youthful experiment. It was his first large scale work and certainly smacks of an innocent youthfulness, but it is absolutely lovely. It is quite brief, reserving its energy for the final movement, and there are some stunning tunes throughout. The second movement is light and airy and the third very simple in the weaving of lines, and the harmonic language. For me the 4th movement has some slightly disappointing passages when he seems to lose his way.
The string quartet op.8 was written a good 4 years later. However, it seems that the work was still undergoing a development of style, as when it appeared at its premier in 1923 it had been revised since publication, and was now 3 instead of 4 movements. This seems to have been due to the influence of Busoni. It is, however, quite different in style to the earlier work. It is more serious, less personal, and the harmonic language is obviously more mature, and has been much influenced by the tutelage of Busoni. Instead of harking back to traditional forms and harmonic structures, to the classical age, it now looks forward, and outwards, to Schoenberg, Hindemith and Shostakovich. The first movement is austere in places, dramatic in others, the second bustling and energetic, and he again gives us a longer final movement which is contemplative, with uneasy shifting harmonies, and a feeling of introspection.
The final work, Minimax, by Hindemith, does not need much commentary. It is a masterpiece of humour and parody – its 6 movements each parody a different work of the time, be it a march, a dance or an overture. Buy the CD for this work alone – it has the power to make even the most hardened modern-music-hater smile.
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