Hindemith String Quartets - Thoughts? Recommendations?

[JSngry]

Now I'm interested. But complete sets are not that many, and mostly by groups with whom I'm not really familiar. Which means nothing of course...so ...anybody?

[Rooster_Ties]

My only frame of reference — the only Hindemith Quartets I’ve ever heard or owned — is the Danish Quartet’s complete set on CPO (rec. 1995-96).

But I have to confess, I’ll bet I’ve only spun it a handful of times in the last 15 years (and I probably picked it up 20 yrs ago).

Playlist of the entire thing:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWCKjgcrYR3PVp7Y9xDuV1oRp0xeAZ9ix&si=1i-E-nAjMDyH22ME

 

Edited yesterday at 11:03 AM by Rooster_Ties

[T.D.]

I like these quartets (and Hindemith, despite his "dry" reputation). Have owned the Danish Q set on cpo for a long time and never felt a need to consider alternatives. As far as I can recall it was viewed favorably on classical forums, but I'm a little out of touch and don't know if other sets have been released recently.

Edited yesterday at 01:20 PM by T.D.

[T.D.]

Whoa! Jim, there's a Juilliard set on Wergo (?!) I didn't even know about that one...seems to be available for not much more than the Naxos/Amar.

Here are a couple of review links fwiw:

https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Apr/Hindemith_quartets_8503290.htm#

HINDEMITH Complete String Quartets - WERGO WER69602 [SG] Classical Music Reviews: August 2017 - MusicWeb-International

Edited yesterday at 02:23 PM by T.D.

[JSngry]

Thanks!

The Juilliard set (made by a post-Mann group);gets a strong review, as did the Amar quartet, which seems to emphasize slower than usual tempos that highlight color and texture.

I like edge but I also like color.

So I'm gonna marinate this for a while. Any further input from our community is certainly welcome!

[Rooster_Ties]

3 hours ago, T.D. said:

I like these quartets (and Hindemith, despite his "dry" reputation).

It’s funny… I always genuinely love listening to Hindemith — yet I can’t cite very many specific works of his that I specifically love.

I’ve got a ton of his stuff too, nearly all on CPO (20 years ago I found all three of those unified orchestral CPO mini-box-sets for 50% off list price, brand new and sealed).

Just counted, I’ve got a total 26 discs of Hindemith — and the only composers I have more of, are Ives and Henze… and then also Grieg (my wife’s favorite composer).

But, strangely, I don’t have more  than a handful of specific works by Hindemith that are ‘favorites’.  More so, I have specific CD’s of his that overall have a several works that happen to have the same timbres — and degrees of contrapuntal-ism — that I always remember really suit my fancy.

Perhaps his ‘dry’ reputation plays into this.

If I was giving numeric scores, it’s like ALL of it is a 7/10 minimum — but practically none of it is over 8/10 either.

It’s all consistently VERY good, but little of it is quite ‘great’ (but oh so very close).

 

Edited yesterday at 04:15 PM by Rooster_Ties

[T.D.]

20 minutes ago, Rooster_Ties said:

It’s funny… I always genuinely love listening to Hindemith — yet I can’t cite very many specific works of his that I specifically love.

I’ve got a ton of his stuff too, nearly all on CPO (20 years ago I found all three of those unified orchestral CPO mini-box-sets for 50% off list price, brand new and sealed).

Just counted, I’ve got a total 26 discs of Hindemith — and the only composers I have more of, are Ives and Henze… and then also Grieg (my wife’s favorite composer).

But, strangely, I don’t have more  than a handful of specific works by Hindemith that are ‘favorites’.  More so, I have specific CD’s of his that overall have a several works that happen to have the same timbres — and degrees of contrapuntal-ism — that I always remember really suit my fancy.

Perhaps his ‘dry’ reputation plays into this.

If I was giving numeric scores, it’s like ALL of it is a 7/10 minimum — but practically none of it is over 8/10 either.

It’s all consistently VERY good, but little of it is quite ‘great’ (but oh so very close).

 

That's a pretty good assessment. Counterpoint is a reason I like Hindemith.

A regular on a classical forum I visit is a big Hindemith enthusiast and raves about his opera Cardillac. I recall not digging the Mathis der Maler (his famous opera) excerpts I heard, so never pursued Cardillac.

[JSngry]

JSQ on Wergo it is.

WERGO!!!!+

[mikeweil]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

JSQ on Wergo it is.

WERGO!!!!+

I'm not surprised, as Wergo is the label of his publisher, Schott. All, really all of his works were published by Schott. A lot of works were issued on Wergo in reference recordings.

I happen to be friends with two people working there, and one of them once invited me to a tour through their cabinets with autographs, memorabilia and the like - very nice. 

[JSngry]

Ah, publishing!

I know Wergo as a mostly experimental/modern label, so it was a bit of a (pleasant) surprise to see this item there 

Then again. the releases of theirs that I have are always quality on every front. So yeah!