Leonard Bernstein: Young People's Concerts Vol. 2 | The Genius of Paul Hindemith

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOtR9GcLirI

Around the 1930s, Hindemith began to write less for chamber groups, and more for large orchestral forces. In 1933–35, Hindemith wrote his opera Mathis der Maler, based on the life of the painter Matthias Grünewald. This opera is rarely staged, though a well-known production by the New York City Opera in 1995 was an exception (Holland 1995). It combines the neo-classicism of earlier works with folk song. As a preliminary stage to the composing of this opera, Hindemith wrote a purely instrumental symphony also called Mathis der Maler, which is one of his most frequently performed works. In the opera, some portions of the symphony appear as instrumental interludes, others were elaborated in vocal scenes.

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Paul Hindemith aged 28

Paul Hindemith (/ˈhɪndəmɪt/; 16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963) was a prolific German composer, violist, violinist, teacher and conductor. In the 1920s, he became a major advocate of the Neue Sachlichkeit (new objectivity) style of music.^[1] Notable compositions include his song cycle Das Marienleben (1923), Der Schwanendreher for viola and orchestra (1935), and opera Mathis der Maler (1938). Hindemith's most popular work, both on record and in the concert hall, is likely the Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, written in 1943.

Leonard Bernstein

German composer and music theorist Paul Hindemith was born on this day in 1895!

In his 1964 Young People's Concert: “The Genius of Paul Hindemith,” Leonard Bernstein said, "Hindemith was a true master in the great German tradition, a master of melody - but he was also a master of harmony and counterpoint and rhythm and form and orchestration and everything that has to do with music, and he wrote beautiful music."

We share with you an excerpt from the Young People’s Concert with the New York Philharmonic in which Bernstein discusses Hindemith’s “Mathis der Maler”, and its musical and political significance.