Paul Hall: ACJW Ensemble Performs Hindemith, Martinů and Dohnányi

Tuesday evening's recital at Paul Hall by the ACJW Ensemble featured a program of twentieth century works by Hindemith, Martinů and Dohnányi.  The ACJW is a two-year fellowship program sponsored jointly by Carnegie Hall and Juilliard, and so there is a complete turnover biennially in the lineup of musicians.  This recital was the first opportunity I'd had to hear the new cast of players.

The program opened with Hindemith's Septet (1948) for flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, horn, bass clarinet and bassoon.  Although the work was actually written long after Hindemith had emigrated to the US and become an American citizen, it was greatly influenced by the intense cultural dialog that had taken place decades before in 1920's Weimar Germany.  One of the key concepts to have arisen during this period was that of Neue Sachlichkeit, a conservative interdisciplinary artistic movement that began in the visual arts as a reaction to German Expressionism.  In music, its impetus was provided by discontent with the twelve-tone school and other progressive twentieth century trends and reflected a renewed interest in Baroque and Renaissance forms that eventually led to the adoption of a neo-classical aesthetic.  For those interested, there is a lengthy doctoral dissertation available online by one Benjamin Eric Shaffer of the University of North Texas that traces in far greater detail the relationship between Hindemith's Septet and Neue Sachlichkeit.

All the above aside, Hindemith's music sounds thoroughly modern and is quite engaging.  I was already a huge fan of his Kammermusik and welcomed the opportunity to hear this rarely performed piece.  It is also worth noting that Hindemith was one of the few composers to have mastered nearly full range of orchestral instruments, a fact that may account for the unusual choice of instruments for which this work was scored.

The  Hindemith Septet was followed by Martinů's La revue de cuisine (1927) for clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, cello, violin and piano.  The four-movement suite was taken from the score of a playful one-act ballet in which the dancers took on the roles of kitchen utensils.  Though on one level a rollicking jazz cabaret piece representative of the wild Parisian nightlife of the 1920's, it was at the same time a serious work in which the composer anticipated many of the styles to be found in post-war modern music.  At the time it was written, Martinů was a student of Albert Roussel and the ballets he wrote during this period allowed him to develop in an informal manner the musical ideas he had acquired during his studies.

After intermission, the program concluded with Dohnányi's Sextet in C major, Op. 37 (1935) for  clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello and piano.  This was another piece of music to incorporate jazz elements but in a much different manner than was employed in the piece by Martinů.  As one online source noted of the Finale:

"Here the musical spirit is more like that of a Gershwin who stayed overlong in a Viennese hotel band, complete with a comical waltz interjection that dips into Mahlerian grotesquerie and a sassy kick to close."

For all that, I found this piece somewhat overwrought in its adherence to a Brahmsian style of composition especially coming after such a lighthearted piece as Martinů's suite.  I did however appreciate the irony of the final movement in which the composer had adroitly inserted a Strauss-like waltz.  This seemed to me a prescient description of 1930's Europe dancing complacently along while all the while ignoring warnings of yet another world war fast approaching.

Dohnányi, like his countryman Liszt, was as famous for his skills as a pianist as he was for his compositions.  During the 1930's and 1940's Dohnányi, as conductor of both the Budapest Philharmonic and the Budapest Radio Orchestra, was one of the most prominent figures in the Hungarian musical scene.  As did Hindemith, he too eventually emigrated to the US on a permanent basis and enjoyed here a successful career until his death in 1960.

I had attended ACJW recitals, both at Weill and Juilliard, regularly for the past two seasons and missed seeing familiar faces, but I felt this new cast of players possessed talent equal to that of the group's alumni.  I also applaud the ensemble for continuing the innovative programming I had come to expect.  Attending these recitals affords an opportunity to hear works of modern music not often explored by less adventurous ensembles.