MUSIC REVIEW : Hindemith’s ‘Marienleben’ Gets a Rare Performance

Can we trust any artist who radically revises his earlier, successful work in the name of theoretical doctrine? Certainly the 1948 revision of “Das Marienleben” by Paul Hindemith--heard Sunday at St. Alban’s Church in Westwood in a very rare performance--raises that uncomfortable question.

Like much of Hindemith’s music written after the consolidation of his musical precepts into compositional dogma in the 1930s, “Das Marienleben” II (originally from 1923) has an air of academic remoteness and of formulaic monotony. But as performed by soprano Lynda Sue Marks-Guarnieri and pianist Charles Ross Perlee, this 70-minute setting of Rilke poems reveals some inspiring elements as well.

The 15 songs follow the Virgin Mary from her birth, through the travails of Jesus’ life and crucifixion, to her own death and ascencion. But Hindemith’s insistent contrapuntalism, drab colors and sturdy but seemingly aimless harmonies eschew intimate expression, sometimes annoyingly.

Yet there is a larger plan evident here that gives a feeling for the passing of Mary’s life, its flow. And individual songs do stand out. The rhythmic vigor and octave doublings in “Argwohn Josephs” vividly depict a rush of anger. Few songs capture grief with the immediacy of “Pieta,” with its quietly reiterated dissonant chords and plaintive, hesitant vocal line.

Marks-Guarnieri and Perlee offered a musically attentive and dramatic reading. Bringing considerable stamina to her task, Marks-Guarnieri sang confidently up high, with lyric grace and rhythmic point. Her voice is not lustrous, but she uses it intelligently.

Perlee performed with piano lid closed, which, along with the lively acoustic, diminished the presence of his playing, thoroughly solid and sensitive though it was. He also provided engrossing translations of the Rilke texts.