Classical reviews

This week Classical reviewer Geoff Adams lisens to Hindemith: Clarinet Quintet, Clarinet Quartet, Clarinet Sonata, etc, and Bach Violin and Voice.

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) is a significant and influential German composer, despite a reputation for dispassionate modernism.

This Spectrum Concerts Berlin recording has excellent performances of his chamber music that many people may not have appreciated before.

Enjoy the artistry of the clarinettist in the contrasting four movements of the 1939 Sonata.

Then he plays a major role in the 1938 Quartet with violin, cello and piano, and also the 1955 Quintet with two violins, viola and cello.

They are all fine works, played with passion, and showing the wit and versatility of Hindemith.

As clever filler tracks there are Three Easy Pieces for cello and piano - pleasing brevities.

Highlight: Fiery but folksy finale to the Quintet.

To vocal lines of arias and duets, Bach composed gorgeous violin passages.

Hahn (visiting Dunedin soon) plays them exquisitely and for this album concept she has enticed the services of two distinguished Bach vocal stylists, assisted by a German orchestra.

Selections from such masterpieces as the St Matthew Passion and Mass in B minor, and cantatas both sacred and secular, are rendered with ethereal beauty and a due reverence, making the listening experience a calm meditation.

As Hahn says, "these magnificent pieces go to the heart of Bach's artistry as a composer of polyphony".

She plays them beautifully - not her big tone, but very cleanly, with intelligent phrasing.

Highlight: Erbanne Dich, from St Matthew Passion, transposed for soprano by Mendelssohn.