Hindemith's Kammermusiken are typically a product of the 1920s. The music is straightforward, with irony. Yet the Kammermusiken are also very traditional, à la . This CD, with the Kammermusiken 4-7, is the complement of an album with the . The fifth Kammermusik (1924) is a concerto for viola, Hindemith's own instrument. Hindemith had been fascinated by the 'indescribable sweetness and softness'
… of the viola d'amore for two years now. In 1926 he even had a viola d'amore built, with the facial features of his wife Gertrud on the curl. A Kammermusik with a soloist viola d'amore could no longer fail (no.6, 1927-29). Perhaps the most impressive is the fourth Kammermusik (1925), in which the violin competes against a large and atypical ensemble of low strings, wind instruments and percussion. Finally, the seventh Kammermusik (1927) is a concert for organ. For the earlier album, conductor Christoph Eschenbach received a Grammy. (HJ)more
