Hindemith: Minimax; Dohnanyi: String Quartet No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 33 - Composers String Quartet

 

HINDEMITH: MINIMAX

1  I. Armeemarsch 606 ("Der Hohenfürstenberger") - Trio 03:02

2  II. Overtüre zu "Wasserdichter und Vogelbauer": Maestoso - Allegro/Presto 04:53

3 III. Ein Abend an der Donauquelle - Intermezzo für zwei entfernte Trompeten 03:41

4 IV. Löwenzähnchen an Baches Rand - Konzertwalzer 04:53

5 V. Die beiden lustigen Mistfinken Charakterstück, Solo für zwei Pikkoloflöten - Trio 03:00

6 VI. Alte Karbonaden Marsch - Trio 01:58

 

DOHNANYI: STRING QUARTET NO. 3

7 I. Allegro agitato e appassionato 10:14

8 II. Andante religioso con variazioni 09:07

9 III. Vivace giocoso 04:35

Along with "Songs of Pomp, Circumstances, and Fire Prevention" for male quartet, and a string quartet transcription of the Flying Dutchman Overture (which "includes all the mistakes ever made by any orchestra"), Minimax is an example of Hindemith's incidental music unpublished during his lifetime. His exuberant sense of humor and love of parody eventually got him in trouble, his music banned -- but at 28, generally acknowledged leader of German avant-garde, he gave free rein to his romantic (and occasionally chaotic) imagination, and found outlet for what he called his "rabbitlike productivity" (he had already produced his first four string quartets, three one-act operas, three song cycles, numerous solo sonatas, etc.) in many small festivals and societies devoted to the production of new music. One of the most prestigious of these was Donaueschingen, family seat of the princes von Furstenberg, with a long history of promoting new music and musicians (10-year-old Mozart played there in 1766, Liszt in 1843). By the early 1920s Hindemith was on the committee running the current prince's summer festival. Though none of his new music was (officially) performed there in 1923, the year he wrote Minimax, this "Suite for Military Orchestra" was obviously meant for Donaueschingen, and for the Amar Quartet (he was violist, his younger brother cellist), nucleus of the festival's performing groups. It is packed with puns, parodies, and private jokes relating to the quartet, the Furstenberg family, and even the grounds of the Donaueschingen castle. Some we can trace, but many are lost on us "outsiders"; even so, the music comes across as marvelously funny, whether we are in on all its jokes or not. ---- Dohnanyi's works represent the last and, after Liszt, richest of Hungarian romanticism, well grounded in classic German tradition. Born only a few miles from Vienna, this "borderline Hungarian" had none of Bartok's interest in native folk music: his few pieces in that vein have a decidedly synthetic flavor, and the majority of his music is essentially a-national, always unashamedly conservative -- 19th century to the death, though he outlived Bartok by 15 years. At times Dohnanyi can be wildly witty, as in his popular Variations on a Nursery Tune (dedicated "to the enjoyment of lovers of humor and to the annoyance of others"), and we get just a hint of that in this quartet, dating from about 1930. But mostly it gives us, by turns, passion, heroism, tenderness, a good deal of sparkle and dash, and in compositional elements and technique nothing more exotic than whole-tone scales. No Bulgarese rhythms here -- on the contrary, there are some in the finale that bring to mind not Bela Bartok but Fred Astaire!