Our Summer BAL 79: Hindemith Symphony "Mathis der Maler"

[teamsaint]

You posted just as I made my PS (found in a collection and streaming now.....).

And you PS’d just as I edited

[Barbirollians]

With this cover?

https://www.warnerclassics.com/release/bartok-music-strings-percussion-celesta-hindemith-symphony-mathis-der-maler

That was supposedly the first one I streamed.

This morning's seemed to be a French version (sorry; can't provide a link) in the Musique Classique series (BnF Collection, whatever that is!).

Looking forward to some more comments on what I think is a splendid piece of music.
Maybe poorer interpretations support the claim that Hindemith wrote 'utility' music, but the better ones reveal much more depth to the music than that.

All imho, of course!


And at least this thread has elicited some response, so I'm glad I launched it!

Have you listened to the Furtwangler on DG I think ? I thought it was very fine when I heard it .

[Pulcinella]

Have you listened to the Furtwangler on DG I think ? I thought it was very fine when I heard it .

No; and I don't seem to be able to find it to stream.
Maybe ts will help again!

[Barbirollians]

No; and I don't seem to be able to find it to stream.
Maybe ts will help again!

Probably because I am going crackers - the recording i was referring to is actually of the Symphonic Metamorphoses . Furtwangler I think did conduct the first performance of M de M much to the fury of the Nazis.

[Pulcinella]

Probably because I am going crackers - the recording i was referring to is actually of the Symphonic Metamorphoses . Furtwangler I think did conduct the first performance of M de M much to the fury of the Nazis.

That explains it: I DID find that!


This is from Wiki:

Hindemith composed the symphony in 1934, while plans for the opera were in their preliminary stages. The conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler asked him at that time for a new work to perform on an upcoming Berlin Philharmonic concert tour, and Hindemith decided to compose symphonic movements that could serve as instrumental interludes in the opera, or be drawn upon or elaborated into various scenes. Furtwängler and the Berlin Philharmonic gave the first performance on 12 March 1934. The first performance outside Germany was given by the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra in October 1934, conducted by Otto Klemperer.[1] Other early performances include the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra in 1936, conducted by Daniel Sternberg.

The symphony was well received at its first performances, but Furtwängler faced severe criticism from the Nazi government for performing the work, given that other Hindemith scores had been denounced by the party as "degenerate" and "Jewish connected." Moreover the opera's plot, which turned on an artist's duty to pursue his vision irrespective of political considerations, was anathema to Nazi ideology. Hindemith completed the full opera by 1935 but, because of the political climate it could not be staged in Germany, and only in 1938 was it at last premiered, in Zürich, Switzerland.

[richardfinegold]

By happy chance, my wife and I did a blind sampling of four performances about six months ago:
they were

The Composer/BPO (from the marvellous DG box)
Abbado/BPO
Bernstein/Israel PO
Ormandy/Philadelphia (RCA box)

Abbado technically solid, well-balanced but dull; the composer too thinly recorded despite the performance's massive, wiry energy; Ormandy sumptuous but bland; Bernstein alert, powerful, moving and even witty by turns - Bernstein won in a canter!

I'd add that Kubelik (in his complete performance of the opera, which of course includes the "symphony" as orchestral preludes/interludes) has a radiant spiritual dimension which is in the Bernstein class.

It's been a while but didn't Szell do a pretty zippy version of the SM etc.?

[HighlandDougie]

I still think that the Blomstedt is well worth a listen, not least because of the excellence of the recording. Part of the problem with the Abbado stems, I think, from the rather sub-fusc recording quality. A bit dull which somehow rubs off on the performance. I haven't heard the Bernstein but, as it's in the big DG box, that's easily remedied.

[Pulcinella]

It's been a while but didn't Szell do a pretty zippy version of the SM etc.?

Yes.
The Sony compilation CD I have is
Hindemith: Symphony 'Mathis der Maler' (PO/Ormandy)
Hindemith: SM on themes..... (Cleveland O/Szell)
Walton: Variations on a theme of Hindemith (Cleveland O/Szell)

A nice conjunction of pieces.