A big thank you to Ray in Montana for sending long this lp to me for transfer. Epic LC3356 featuring Szymon Goldberg leading his Netherlands Chamber Orchestra with Leon Fleisher and Paul Godwin taking up the solo duties in wonderful music of Hindemith.
Paul Hindemith is one of my favorite composers and I absolutely never tire of either the Symphony Mathis der Maler of the main work on this record, The Four Temperaments. The music his completely accessible and masterfully orchestrated and in both pieces the ideas are fresh, engaging and in places poignant. This Four Temperaments is fortunate to feature Leon Fleisher in the concertante role. At the time of the recording. Fleisher was at an absolute artistic peak, having set down benchmark records with Szell of concertos by Beethoven and Brahms. The collaboration here is one of cohesion and though it does not displace my favorite record of Victor Aller with Felix Slatkin, it is nonetheless, highly musical and worthy of Hindemith's intentions. The works on side two are beautifully rendered and a tribute to the excellent orchestra that Goldberg developed.
Goldberg's "take" of Op 44, No 4 got me thinking about another old MGM lp that I transferred unsatisfactorily sometime ago. This lp features the complete "Educational Music" of Op 44 with the Maurice Levine String Ensemble. I gave it another go and it came out better. Like Orff, Hindemith was interested in musical learning and in the spirit of teaching, he created an interesting work in its complete form. Unfortunately, both lps add up to about 85 minutes of music so if you download both, it'll be two burned cd's.
A curious note: though the MGM is expectantly mono, I would have expected the 1957 date of the Goldberg record to have a stereophonic edition. Alas, no.
Always a good day with new Hindemith discoveries!
DOWNLOAD EPIC LC3356
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