I vividly remember a Hindemith memorial concert given at Yale University in the late 1970s that featured an all-too-rare opportunity to hear in concert these two marvelous, shamefully neglected symphonies. On the whole the digital era has been kinder to Hindemith than previous decades, with fine performances of both works available on CPO and Chandos, but these two performances silence the competition. Herbert Blomstedt’s interpretations of this composer’s music, while always good, have improved as his traversal of the orchestral works has progressed from the early days of his tenure in San Francisco. The Gewandhaus Orchestra sounds absolutely right in these pieces: the strings rich and dark, the brass confident but never strident or too “blatty” in Salvation Army Band style. This makes something special out of the opening of the Serena, not to mention its marvelous, strings-only third movement. Similarly, Blomstedt launches the brassy “Harmony of the World” with effortless grandeur and propels the music irresistibly forward with none of the rhythmic clunkiness that always seems a risk in late Hindemith. The last movement passacaglia, in turn, rises like some vast monolith from the depths of the orchestra and culminates in a huge climax which, aided by spectacular sound, allows the joyful pealing of bells to cut right through the instrumental pile-up at the end. Given the current state of Decca, or whatever the company will now be called, it may be too much to hope that these forces get around to doing the Symphony in E-flat or the Symphonic Dances, but you never know. We could get lucky. A stunning, fabulous release. [7/9/2000]
