Hindemith's career as a performer had two phases. As a young man he played the violin and then the viola professionally. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1922 and was their viola player until 1929, when he formed a string trio with Josef Wolfsthal and Emanuel Feuermann. Wolfsthal died prematurely in 1931 and was replaced by Szymon Goldberg. After 1934, when Hindemith was compelled to leave Germany, he turned rather more to conducting and was active in this role for the rest of his life.
The Amar Quartet recorded Mozart and Beethoven for Polydor as well as Hindemith, Krenek and Stravinsky. They made an acoustic version of Hindemith's String Quartet No. 3 some two years after they had given the first performance in 1922, and in late 1926 or early 1927 they re-recorded the work electrically. Alas, Mark Obert-Thorn could do little to make the original shrill, cramped sound any more comfortable in his transfer on Koch Schwann's disc, but there is a burning conviction in the playing which quite transcends sonic limitations. The String Trio No. 2 was recorded a few months after Goldberg, Hindemith and Feuermann had given the work's premiere. Again, there is considerable strength and feeling in the performance. It is hard luck on Koch that their estimable transfer from commercial pressings is outshone by the quality of sound EMI have obtained from the original masters.
Hindemith's Solo Viola Sonata (EMI) is a work of considerable emotional depth, and is given excellent advocacy by the composer. This item, I feel, shows his playing at its very considerable best, as does the brief Scherzo with Feuermann (also EMI). He doesn't produce a big, rounded tone from his instrument, but none the less shows a good technique. In 1939, when he recorded the items on Biddulph's disc, Hindemith was a little less secure technically and his tone-quality had become rather scrawny under pressure-the close original Victor recordings didn't flatter him, either. Nevertheless, it is instructive to hear him in the pithy and expressive Schwanendreher under Arthur Fiedler, the moving Trauermusik, and the Third Viola Sonata, which perhaps grows more slowly on the listener. Hindemith shows himself to have been a nimble pianist in the attractive Duet Sonata with Sanroma, for whom he wrote the piece and whom he partnered regularly in recitals at this time. Biddulph's transfers are excellent.
The 1934 Mathis der Maler recording was made less than a month after the work's premiere under Furtwangler. At this stage Hindemith was an inexperienced conductor, but he secures a cogent, lively and expressive performance from the BPO. In some ways this is more impressive than his later 1955 DG account with the same orchestra (7/89). Koch's transfer here is decent.
The orchestral items on EMI's set all come from the 1956 Philharmonia sessions. The Clarinet Concerto, with the veteran Louis Cahuzac a beautifully clear-toned soloist, and the Symphonia serena both appear in stereo and on CD for the first time. The other three works (plus the Symphony in B flat, for which, alas, there was no room on EMI's new issue) appeared on a now deleted EMI Great Recordings of the Century CD release (2/91). Those who possess that disc should be advised that the sound on the new set has more body and presence. So again we have Dennis Brain's unique, unmatchable account of the Horn Concerto, and superlatively played performances of the masterly Nobilissima Visione suite and the Concert Music for brass and strings.
EMI's is clearly the most desirable of the three productions, but Biddulph's CD offers some very rare and interesting recordings. Koch's contains two duplicated items, but also the potent Third Quartet performance.
Common to all the interpretations here is that very special directness of expression which is a unique feature of composer recordings. Hindemith's clear, practical approach as a performer in a way reflects the symmetry and logic of his own music. What is striking, however, is the degree of emotion that he also finds in it.'