Paul Hindemith
Hindemith was a theorist, teacher, violist, conductor, and composer who is regarded by many as the foremost German composer of his generation, a central figure in music between the First and Second World Wars. His style combined neo-classicism with modern harmonic conventions and some jazz elements. Hindemith's works include opera, ballet, orchestral, choral, and chamber music. As a younger man, Hindemith idealized Gebrauchmusik, an aesthetic of use over beauty. Yet his best-known works, particularly the opera Mathis der Maler, are appreciated for their warmth; rich, even opulent orchestral colors and gestures; a unique multi-rhythmic sense; and flowing, rapid polyphony.
Born outside of Frankfurt, Hindemith moved with his family to the city in 1902. It was here, in 1904, that Hindemith began taking violin lessons. By 1908, he became a student of Adolf Rebner, a teacher at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, who arranged for Hindemith to be awarded a free place at the conservatory the following year. Although he had long been composing, Hindemith began to study composition formally in addition to continuing his study of the violin. However, he was forced to leave the conservatory in 1917 when he was called up for military service. He spent most of his service as a member of a regimental band stationed about three kilometers from the front line. After returning from the war, Hindemith again took to the concert stage with the Rebner Quartet, having switched to viola in 1919, but he began thinking of himself primarily as a composer. In this period, his music evolved from late-Romantic-era Expressionism meant for a specific purpose, occasion, or reason to a new style of absolute and objective music. In 1923, he was invited to join the administrative committee of the Donaueschingen Festival, a group over which he exerted an ever-increasing amount of control, programming works of such composers as Schoenberg and Webern. The next year, he married Gertrud Rottenberg, the daughter of the conductor of the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra, an ensemble in which Hindemith had been playing. His series of eight works entitled Kammermusik was composed during these years. In 1927, he received an appointment as professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. In addition to maintaining an active performing career, Hindemith soon developed a strong interest in teaching and even took on an evening class at the Volksmusikschule NeuKolln. Early in 1934, the Nazi party began a campaign to discredit Hindemith, which culminated in a boycott of the composer's works announced by the Kulturgemeinde in November of that year. In January 1935, Hindemith was given a six-month leave from the Hochschule. However, as the boycott of his music was not endorsed by the music division of the Nazi party until 1937, he was allowed not only to return to teaching, but also to undertake a series of concert tours abroad, to have his music published, and to enter into an agreement with the government of Turkey to build an organized musical life in that country. Also in 1935, Hindemith completed his most famous opera, Mathis der Maler, which he had begun in 1933. Given the political circumstances, it was not premiered until 1938, in Zurich, after Hindemith had left Germany for Switzerland. He then moved to the U.S. in 1940. After a series of lecture and teaching engagements that had been arranged by friends, he took a position at Yale, teaching composition and, from 1945 to 1953, conducting the Collegium Musicum. Hindemith became an American citizen in 1946. In 1951, he accepted a position at the University of Zurich and, after retiring from Yale in 1953, took up permanent residence in Switzerland. Hindemith had been composing sonatas for every orchestral instrument over the entire course of his career. The last one he completed was the Tuba Sonata, which dates from 1955, the same year he retired from his post in Zurich. After that, he became more active as a conductor. In November 1963, he was taken ill and transferred to a hospital in Frankfurt, where he died of acute pancreatitis.
© TiVo Staff /TiVo
-
Hindemith: Choral Works for Mixed Chorus a Capella
Classical - Released by Globe on Jan 1, 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith - Legendary Recordings
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on Nov 12, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith & Shostakovich: Viola Sonatas
Yuri Bashmet, Sviatoslav Richter
Classical - Released by Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga Musica on Jan 1, 1985
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith: Complete Brass Works
Classical - Released by Summit Records on Jan 1, 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith: Mathis der Maler - Symphonische Metamorphosen - Violinkonzert
David Oïstrakh, London Symphony Orchestra, Paul Hindemith, Claudio Abbado, Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Paul Kletzki
Classical - Released by Decca on Jan 1, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1-3; Suite for Piano "1922"
Classical - Released by MSR Classics on Aug 12, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dreams of Freedom
Chamber Music - Released by Odradek Records on Sep 21, 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith conducts Hindemith
Berliner Philharmoniker, Paul Hindemith
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on Jan 1, 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Paul Hindemith: Sinfonietta in E - Claude Almand: John Gilbert - A Steamboat Overture - David Diamond: Timon of Athens - A Portrait After Shakespeare
The Louisville Orchestra, Robert Whitney
Classical - Released by First Edition on Jan 13, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Paul Hindemith: Piano Sonata No. 1 in A Major / Serguéi Prokófiev: Piano Sonata No. 1 in A Major
Classical - Released by RHI on Sep 12, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith: Symphony in B-Flat Major & The 4 Temperaments - Berg: Chamber Concerto
Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Clara Haskil, Wolfgang Marschner, Paul Hindemith, Carl Seemann
Classical - Released by Orfeo on Apr 20, 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monteverdis Orfeo (1954)
Classical - Released by Music and Arts Programs of America on Jun 8, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Grandi maestri dell'interpretazione: Clara Haskil, Vol. 3
Clara Haskil, Geza Anda, French Radio Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Paul Hindemith, Bernhard Paumgartner
Classical - Released by Stradivarius on Jan 1, 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven & Haydn: Piano Works (Live)
Friedrich Gulda, RIAS-Sinfonie-Orchester, Paul Hindemith
Classical - Released by Archipel on Mar 18, 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ludus tonalis Part I
Classical - Released by Digital Music Group, Inc. on Feb 10, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Paul Hindemith: Violin Concerto - Bohuslav Martinů: Sonata For Violin And Piano No. 3, H 303
Chamber Music - Released by RHI on Nov 11, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith: Sonata for Piano and Trombone
Christian Lindberg, Roland Pöntinen, Paul Hindemith
Classical - Released by EUROPEAN GRAMOPHONE on Nov 4, 2020
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith: Werke für Violoncello & Klavier, Vol. 2
Julius Berger, Siegfried Mauser
Chamber Music - Released by wergo on Jan 1, 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ludus tonalis Part II
Classical - Released by Digital Music Group, Inc. on Feb 10, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith: Violin Concerto - Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3
Classical - Released by Everest Records on Jul 29, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Live In Concert Recording #125
The University of Illinois Symphonic Band
Classical - Released by Soundset Recordings on Jan 1, 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo