Drei Gesänge

For a radically different slant on Hindemith, we recommend that you surprise your concert audiences with the composer’s early Drei Gesänge op. 9 which not only display the confident mastery of large-scale orchestral forces, but also show the young composer in a different light as part Late Romantic and part Expressionist. Here he becomes totally submerged in the emotional texts by Lasker-Schüler and Lotz, which bring forth an intense musical expressiveness. Half terrified, he wrote to a female friend: ’Not suitable for friends of music. Courageous individuals wanted! Female singer with two sets of lungs!’ As well as an exceptional singer, this work demands large orchestral forces, including eight horns and two harps, but the profound effect of the Drei Gesänge makes it well worth assembling these substantial forces for its performance.