If I Could Choose Only One Work By...HINDEMITH

[@nigelhaywood9753]

I love Hindemith. Always have. I've only recently realised that not everyone seems to share my passion. I don't quite understand why.

[@dionbaillargeon4899]

1:25. I actually SCREAMED when he said the symphony in E flat. I couldn't agree more. I discovered it just a couple of years ago and I consequenly pestered many friends with it for months.

[@grantparsons6205]

So hard to choose "favourites". I love this suggestion. Thanks Dave. Such a brilliant work & the last movement is pure genius. I'll look up the Bernstein version, which I haven't heard. I've lived with the CPO recording from Melbourne since it's release. As you say, it's is criminal that this is not performed more. If my memory serves me correctly, BBC Scottish Symphony performed it some years ago under Volkov. I don't recall Jurowski ever having done it during his period in London, but you'd think it was just his ticket...

[@marks1417]

"StarWars like emphasis, which is how you should do it" Ha, YES - perfectly put. Great talk

[@eighteenin78]

Happy Birthday Paul. November 16 1895.

[@davidbo8400]

I was listening to that symphony barely a couple of days ago and I told myself the exact same thing. I listened to the Tortelier, by the way, which is coupled with the Nobilissima Visione (also great). Amazing work, great choice, really love it. He's one of the composers I return to often because a lot of his music is so rewarding.

[@gaylelinney180]

Dave you are right about Hindemith, a seriously underrated composer. For me it has to be the Symphonic Metamorphoses - endlessly fascinating - but I also have a soft spot for the Lustige Sinfonietta, which PH wrote at the age of 21 in 1916. There's not much "lustig" about it, with movement titles including Die Galgenbrüder and Zoologische Merkwürdigkeiten - really the whole thing is a strange beast.

[@erikdaumann8589]

Wow, what a powerful piece! I didn't know it, I have to admit. Just listened to it. Thank you, Dave, for this choice!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Glad you like it!

[@nicholasjschlosser1724]

A great pick! That whole Hindemith album from the Bernstein Royal Edition series could be a contender: the best symphony in eflat, with fantastic Music for Brass and Strings and Symphonic Metamorphosis!

[@salt_cots]

Bravo, Sir, for not choosing the obvious, popular pieces of Hindemith. I have worked hard to get to know Hindemith over the years, not always successfully. I actually have the Tortelier recording of this piece, but haven't yet listened (I bought a whole batch of Hindemith CDs at the start of lockdown). I shall now put the disc on.

[@AlexMadorsky]

Couldn’t agree more with this choice, and I’m so pleased you’ve discussed the Symphony in E Flat frequently. One of my favorite 20th-century symphonies, there is absolutely no accounting for its anonymity. It contains none of the clunky, modernist eccentricity that puts some people off Hindemith. Bernstein gives the symphony the spine and punch it needs, I suggest commenty people who don’t know the work start there.

[@torterrakart7249]

Uuh that’s a tough one. I personally love his chamber music, specially his viola works. After all it was his main instrument. My recommendations are Hindemith Viola Sonata op. 11 nº4 and viola solo sonata op.31 nº 4

[@Kyle-ur4mr]

His works for viola are so important. He didn’t just expand the repertoire, but created a whole new characteristic sound

[@JamesAdams-ev6fc]

I heard the viola concerto the other day on Apple Classical, and I enjoyed it very much.

[@steveschwartz8944]

I first heard this on the Bernstein NY Phil LP. Blew me away. It's one of my favorite Bernstein recordings.

[@MrEdmundHarris]

Oh damn, that'd a really tough one. I love Hindemith and owe my love of him entirely to you. If pushed, though, I think I'd have to plump for the whole Kammermusik series, which was such a revelation when I discovered it.

[@MikeRusso2000]

Dave, I’ve tried so hard to like Hindemith. I recall first hearing When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d as a teenager; I already knew and admired Whitman’s poem, but just couldn’t connect with Hindemith’s music. The same with the Mathis der Maler symphony. I tried some of the chamber music, and I’m hot-or-cold with it. The only thing that made an instant impression was his Trautonium Concerto - would love to see someone bring it to the concert stage. On your recommendation, I’ll give the E-flat symphony a shot. Thanks!

[@fulltongrace7899]

Try Symphonic Metamorphosis on a theme of CM Von Weber, which is a theme and variations. Dave did a whole talk on it. Hindemith for those who find Hindemith challenging.

[@guimapg10]

Thank you, Dave. I listened to it today and loved it!

[@pandude53]

agree 100%. Masterpiece

[@t.gadway6729]

A long time favorite of mine, love hearing about it, thank you. I've first heard it from a cassette with the London Concert Orchestra, Sir Anthony Arthur conducting. I've heard several versions since but this seems to me the only one that gives the third movement right mixture of speed and weight. And how on earth after so many years I could not see that the third movement had the same theme as the second! Thanks for pointing that out.

[@martinrichard237]

Yes, I have the Tortelier's on Chandos, I think it is excellent

[@raisinbrahms5872]

I think my pick for Hindemith would have to be his op 25 no 1 viola sonata, not only is it a staple of the Viola repertoire, but it’s also a masterpiece and very representative of his work as music theorist

[@mrblueskye8609]

Hi Dave, As I started watching the video I was rooting for this work to be the choice. I first heard it while at university in Aberdeen at a time when I was exploring and extending my musical boundaries and I was blown away by it. I can't remember who the recording was by but I was motivated to do some research and added the Tortelier disc to my collection. I think this work would have to be on any 'best list' of 20th century symphonies. Can we have a 'B' list of 20th century symphonies to expand on the essential list you've already given us?

[@miketackett4283]

What a pleasant shock! Here I was...thinking I was the only one who thought this symphony was truly bodacious...

[@barryguerrero6480]

Good one. It would still be the "Mathis der Maler" Symphony for me.

[@rogergersbach3300]

Thanks, David, for recommending Hindemith's Symphony in E -Flat which I have never heard before. I am considering Bernstein's recording, coupled with Goldmark's Rustic Wedding Symphony, another first for me.

[@johnbyrd3168]

The Bernstein reco4ding also has Goldmark’s Rustic Wedding! 👍🚀

[@michaelsimpson6958]

Trying to guess what you would choose from your sometimes devil’s advocate positions, I first off and half-heartedly passed over Mathis der Maler and Symphonic Metamorphses, secondarily the Concert Music for Strings and Brass, and finally thought, oh well, it will probably be the Symphony in E-flat. What a surprise. Second guessing worked for Hindemith!

[@frgraybean]

Great choice! I think the Symphony for Band is also a screaming masterpiece. Why aren't these pieces recorded more often?!?!

[@dmntuba]

Very, very good pick, but was kind of hoping you would select his Sonata for Tuba...oh well.

[@svanduffel]

it's one of my favorite works of Hindemith :)

[@johnbyrd3168]

The works I would have chosen, Dave, would have been the piano work, Ludis Tonalis, or the lieder piece Die Marienleben

[@Tom_Theodore]

On the edge of my seat at 1’22”-“is he going to say Das Marienleben? And refer to the Gould/Rozlak recording?” I didn’t really think so.

[@magnuskrook39]

A suggestion for composer X, being William Byrd, and the unavoidable choice is then work Ö, the motet Ne irascaris, Domine and its sequel Civitas sancti tu from the Liber Sacrarum Cantionum, published in 1589. Often performed together, these mesmerizing motets will surely goad the god in question to want to explore the rest of Byrd's output.

[@Warp75]

I’ve become a huge fan of Hindemith. His Gebrauchsmusik is brilliant & Kraftwerk ripped it.

[@raymondcox789]

With regard to the sound, some time back Pentatone announced that all their recordings would be SACD. Recently they have been CD only. The sound here might be good, as Dave reports, but - especially for Mahler - it would have been even better with SACD, would it not?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Not.

[@thekeyoflifepiano]

Is there ever gonna be a version of this video for Pierre Boulez? That would be a challenge ;)

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

No, because that makes the argument for letting Cancrizans destroy everything but the one work selected, and no one would mind.

[@ppfuchs]

I think Hindemith himself made a good recording of that Symphony too, if memory serves.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Not to my knowledge.

[@t.gadway6729]

Indeed there is, right here on KZbin. Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

[@thechosenone3197]

Will you be doing one of these on Rossini and Puccini?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Sure.

[@petterw5318]

Why did Germans more or less stop writing symphonies after Mahler?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Because they ran out of tunes and Wagner told them not to. It was a huge mistake.

[@petterw5318]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Maybe you could do a chat about that?