Tagged with 'Paul Hindemith'

In their Christmas concerts these days, the Elbland Philharmonie Sachsen under the direction of Ekkehard Klemm and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn under the direction of Hermes Helfricht will be performing the suite to the opera Tuttifäntchen by Paul Hindemith.

2019 marks the 200^th anniversary of the great American author Walt Whitman. Paul Hindemith’s requiem, When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d, is a setting of Whitman’s poem of the same name, which will be performed at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg on 18 and 19 January by mezzo-soprano Gerhild Romberger, baritone Matthias Goerne, the RIAS Chamber Choir, the NDR Choir and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.



Composed shortly after he received his American citizenship, the work pays tribute to the country that had welcomed him with open arms after his exile from Germany. It is interesting to note that Hindemith’s admiration for this particular poem stretches back much further: his 1919 song cycle for baritone and piano, 3 Hymnen von Walt Whitman, contains a setting of the ninth verse which he revisits again in 9 English Songs written in early 1940.

Hindemith sets the whole poem in his requiem, which bears the subtitle A Requiem “for those we love” and was composed in 1946 and premiered in New York the same year. The German version, which Hindemith translated himself, was first performed in Perugia in 1948.

Paul Hindemith: A Requiem “for those we love” – A commemoration to the victims of the war

The requiem was commissioned following the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, drawing a historical parallel to Whitman’s poem, itself an elegy written in the wake of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Hindemith included the inscription “for those we love” to extend its scope beyond the immediate occasion to other themes from Whitman’s text including peace and the fraternization of enemies. Hindemith also used musical language to express his profound despair concerning the fate of many Jewish people in Europe during WWII including a quotation of the Jewish melody “Gaza”.

At a young age, landscape, mood, education and personal attachment to things and events may be an important stimulus to artistic work. But I now find that the story of people, events and experiences as well as their interpretation and design by artistic means is not so much connected to these externalities. It depends on how one processes his experiences and not on collecting new ones on the spot ... - Paul Hindemith

The definitive recording of When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom’d features Cornelia Kallisch, Krister St. Hill, the Rundfunkchor Berlin and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin with Lothar Zagrosek.

The new edition of the Schott Journal includes repertoire recommendations for the upcoming bicentenary of both Walt Whitman and Herman Melville in 2019. Download the magazine below to discover more from the “American Romantics”.

• Paul Hindemith - profile


• When lilacs last in the door-yard bloom'd - workdetails


• Schott Journal - Download

On 27 May, Hartmann’s Symphony No. 1 will be performed the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Kismara Pessatti under the direction of Arie van Beek in Rotterdam.

Hartmann composed his Symphony No. 1 for contralto and orchestra in 1935 but because of his political dissidence, the music was classified as degenerate. He would wait more than 10 years before the work was finally premiered in 1948. Today, Symphony No. 1 is a standard part of the new music repertoire. The work, subtitled “Versuch eines Requiems” (“Attempt at a Requiem”), was originally intended as a Cantata Lamento. By 1955, after many re-workings, the piece had matured into the symphony known today. The text is taken from poems by Walt Whitman, whose words also Paul Hindemith used in his Requiem 'for those we love'.

Symphony No. 1: music against the war

Hartmann's Symphony does not follow the classical form of four movements, but rather, five movements are structured concentrically around an instrumental middle movement (a "song without words"). This middle section contains a quotation from his anti-war opera, Simplicius Simplicissimus, in the form of theme and variation. Like many of his works, Hartmann's Symphony bears the impression of life under the Nazi regime.

He describes his motivation and feelings at the time of its composition:

Then there came 1933, with its misery and hopelessness, and with this that consistent development of violent dictatorship - the most dreadful of all crimes: the war. That year I recognised the necessity of confession, not in desperation and fear of that power, but as a counteraction to it. I told myself that freedom will win, even if we are destroyed – at least back then I believed this. At that time, I wrote my 1st String Quartet, the Poème Symphonique "Miserae" and my First Symphony with the words of Walt Whitman: 'I sit and look at all plagues of the world and at all distress and disgrace'. – Hartmann

Next month, Hartmann’s Concerto funebre for solo violin and orchestra will be performed on 4 June at the Wiener Festwochen Festival with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Klangforum Wien. On 4 and 5 July, it will also be performed by the Studio-Orchester München with conductor Christoph Adt at the Reaktorhalle in Munich.

• Karl Amadeus Hartmann - profile


• Symphony No. 1 - work details