If I Could Choose Only One Work By...HINDEMITH
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 มี.ค. 2023
- It Would Have To Be...Symphony in E-flat
There aren't many great German symphonies from the first half of the 20th century, but this is certainly one of them, and it may be Hindemith's best as well.
The List So Far:
1. Ravel: Ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Ballet)
2. Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
3. Schubert: String Quintet in C major
4. Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4
5. Mahler: Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”
6. Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
7. Debussy: Preludes for Piano (Books 1 & 2)
8: Handel: Saul
9. Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro
10. Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G major
11. Vaughan Williams: Job
12. Bach: Goldberg Variations
13. R. Strauss: Four Last Songs
14. Berlioz: The Damnation of Faust
15. Haydn: “Paris” Symphonies (Nos. 82-87)
16. Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
17. Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor
18. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor
19. Chopin: Preludes
20. Verdi: Rigoletto
21. Roussel: Symphony No. 2
22. Copland: Appalachian Spring (complete original ballet)
23. Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 and 2
24. Bartók: Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
25. Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 2
26. Rimsky-Korsakov: Opera Suites (Scottish National Orchestra/Järvi) Chandos
27. Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire
28. Smetana: Ma Vlást
29. Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain
30. Bizet: Carmen
31. Elgar: In the South
32. Sullivan: The Mikado
33. Dvořák: Symphony No. 8; Cello Concerto (Piatigorsky/Munch/Boston Symphony) RCA
34. Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies
35. Monteverdi: Orfeo
36. Scarlatti: Sonatas
37. Schumann: Fantasie in C, Op. 17
38. Berg: Wozzeck
39. Hermann: Psycho (film score)
40. Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini
41. Purcell: Dido and Aeneas
42. Holst: Suites for Military Band
43. Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex
44. Respighi: Three Botticelli Pictures
45. Sibelius: Symphony No. 5; Pohjola’s Daughter (Bernstein, New York Philharmonic) Sony
46. Britten: The Turn of the Screw
47. Borodin: String Quartet No. 2
48. Janácek: The Cunning Little Vixen
49. Korngold: Violin Concerto
50. Tallis: Spem in Alium
51. Nielsen: Symphony No. 5
52. Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915 - เพลง
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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.
I love Hindemith. Always have. I've only recently realised that not everyone seems to share my passion. I don't quite understand why.
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.
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.
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...
Wow, what a powerful piece! I didn't know it, I have to admit. Just listened to it. Thank you, Dave, for this choice!
Glad you like it!
Thank you, Dave. I listened to it today and loved it!
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.
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.
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!
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
His works for viola are so important. He didn’t just expand the repertoire, but created a whole new characteristic sound
I heard the viola concerto the other day on Apple Classical, and I enjoyed it very much.
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.
I first heard this on the Bernstein NY Phil LP. Blew me away. It's one of my favorite Bernstein recordings.
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!
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.
"StarWars like emphasis, which is how you should do it" Ha, YES - perfectly put. Great talk
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?
Happy Birthday Paul. November 16 1895.
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.
Good one. It would still be the "Mathis der Maler" Symphony for me.
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
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!
The Bernstein reco4ding also has Goldmark’s Rustic Wedding! 👍🚀
Yes, I have the Tortelier's on Chandos, I think it is excellent
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.
What a pleasant shock! Here I was...thinking I was the only one who thought this symphony was truly bodacious...
Great choice! I think the Symphony for Band is also a screaming masterpiece. Why aren't these pieces recorded more often?!?!
Very, very good pick, but was kind of hoping you would select his Sonata for Tuba...oh well.
it's one of my favorite works of Hindemith :)
The works I would have chosen, Dave, would have been the piano work, Ludis Tonalis, or the lieder piece Die Marienleben
Is there ever gonna be a version of this video for Pierre Boulez? That would be a challenge ;)
No, because that makes the argument for letting Cancrizans destroy everything but the one work selected, and no one would mind.
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.
I’ve become a huge fan of Hindemith.
His Gebrauchsmusik is brilliant & Kraftwerk ripped it.
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.
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?
Not.
Will you be doing one of these on Rossini and Puccini?
Sure.
I think Hindemith himself made a good recording of that Symphony too, if memory serves.
Not to my knowledge.
Indeed there is, right here on TH-cam. Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Why did Germans more or less stop writing symphonies after Mahler?
Because they ran out of tunes and Wagner told them not to. It was a huge mistake.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Maybe you could do a chat about that?