Horn Concerto (1949)
Performances: Jan 19/20, 2008

 

For people with ears, my stuff is really easy to grasp. –Paul Hindemith

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) was one of the great musical intellects of the 20^th century.  Proficient on many orchestral instruments, a fine pianist, and a brilliant theorist and composer, Hindemith produced some of the best-crafted harmonically innovative works of his time.

Hindemith came from a poor, working-class background, inspiring him (along with many other German composers of the interwar period) to a strong dislike of bourgeois culture, with a resolve to create “useful” music that was direct and accessible.  Thus, much of Hindemith’s music is written for student and amateur musicians, but is still challenging to the most accomplished players.  Hindemith’s father squeezed a little money out of the family budget to get music lessons for his children.  Between 1909 and 1914, the young Hindemith studied at the Hoch Conservatory.  At the start of World War I, he won a position in the violin section of the Frankfurt Opera and also became second violinist in his teacher’s string quartet.  It was in Frankfurt that conductor Fritz Busch noticed Hindemith and gave premieres of two of his operas.  Hindemith’s operas, however, proved too modern for Busch and Frankfurt , but the controversy gained Hindemith attention.  Soon, Hindemith would adopt a more conservative style with strong deference to textures and styles of Bach.

Hindemith’s new music, although sounding more pleasant, nonetheless dwelled on themes highly volatile in pre-World War II Germany.  In 1933, Hindemith’s opera Mathis der Maler (Mathis the Painter), based upon the life of Matthias Grünewald, with themes that highlighted bitter struggles between Catholics and Lutherans, proved too incendiary, but in March, 1934, legendary conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler conducted a performance of the Mathis der Maler Symphonie—a brilliant, three-movement work constructed from musical themes from the opera—which drew an immediate success but managed to put Hindemith at odds with Hitler and other Nazi authorities.  Before long, Hindemith left Germany for Turkey, where he founded a new music school.  When things had cooled down, Hindemith attempted a return to Germany.  More brilliant successes followed, along with a complete ban of all of Hindemith’s works in 1936 by the Nazis.  After another brief spell in Turkey, Hindemith resigned all of his European posts and headed for America.  In 1940 he was appointed visiting professor at Yale and head of advanced composition at Tanglewood.  His later years were spent primarily in America and Switzerland, always with a heavy teaching schedule.

Hindemith composed his Horn Concerto (1949) for the legendary hornist Dennis Brain while on vacation in Switzerland after World War II.  The premiere took place June 8, 1950 in Baden-Baden , with Hindemith conducting.  Hindemith was so happy with the concerto that he decided to keep it under his wing for a few years, adding, “I think that … the horn concerto too should remain reserved for me next year.  First, there is no reason for me to surrender my trump cards, and, second, nine-nine percent of all conductors have taken complete leave of their senses, so much that one would do well to show them how things are done.”  The first and second movements are both very short, a punchy sonatina and a tiny scherzo, respectively.  The third movement, in three parts, is the anchor of the work, thoroughly dramatic, and based upon a text by Hindemith describing the horn’s temperament.  Different opinions exist as to whether or not reciting the text adds to the declamatory statements by the horn, but the text makes strong assertions about both instrument and soloist.

My call transforms

The concert hall into a tone-fallen grove,

The present into the unremembered,

You into the cloth and custom of your ancestors,

Your fortune into their longing and resignation.

Permit these dear shadows their resurrection,

Yourself commune with them, the half-forgotten,

And me my tone-formed longing.