Symphonic Metamorphoses - Hindemith (1895-1963)

Allegro: Scherzo: Andantino: Marsch

"Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber for Large Orchestra" is as undigestible a title as can be found in music - fortunately the music is extremely palatable with its wit, beauty and exuberance. In our current time of snappy headings, "buzz-words" and short attention spans, the weight of Hindemith's music does sit rather heavily and he has slid a long way down the musical pecking order - would it be an exaggeration to say that the average concert-goer has heard very little of him and his music? Even though there might be some justification for this position, he wrote an enormous amount of music not all of which has the inspiration of his greatest works, his importance as a composer, teacher, performer, conductor and writer cannot be underestimated. Already recognised as Germany's foremost composer and admitted to the elite German Academy at the age of thirty-two, Hindemith was appointed to the prestigious post of Professor of Composition at the Berlin Hochschule. He was brought crashing down from this elevated position when the Nazi Party declared his music un-German and he was forced to leave his homeland. Both Hindemith and his contemporary, Arnold Schoenberg, expressed an interest in coming to England. What a team! Just imagine, two of the last century's greatest thinker-musicians in residence at our academies inspiring the young musicians of the future! Politically this could not be and the United States was the fortunate recipient of them both. Paul Hindemith became Professor of Music Theory at Yale, a position he held until 1953, when he returned to Europe as Professor of Music at Zurich University.

In 1952, Hindemith's Charles Eliot Norton Lectures were published in a book "A Composer's World". This profound, inspirational and revelatory book, now out of print of course, should be compulsory reading for all musicians and of great help to any who aspire to further their knowledge. A contemporary review from the New Republic says: "It is so free of technical jargon and presented in such a gratifying literary style that it can be read with pleasure by anyone who is interested in the subject". Just so! Hindemith's acerbic and telling comments on the state of musical education are lightened by the following, "Let us assume that a country has, at a given time, five thousand active music teachers in colleges and music schools - a number not too high compared with the number in this country. The duty of these music teachers is, of course, to instruct professional musicians and amateurs and among the professionals so instructed, new music teachers are produced. Now, if each music teacher produces not more than two new music teachers each year - which is not an exaggerated estimate - and if no interfering war, plague, or earthquake hinders this happy propagation, the result can easily be foreseen: after the first year we will have an additional ten thousand music teachers, in the fifteenth year every man, woman and child in the United States will be a music teacher, and after about twenty years the entire population of our planet will consist of nothing but music teachers."

When Hindemith joined the faculty of Yale University in 1940, he was asked to write a ballet based on the music of Carl Maria von Weber in collaboration with Massine. However, it soon became apparent that Hindemith's conception of the music was too elaborate for the choreographer and the idea was dropped. The music was too good to lose; the composer transformed his ballet into the eighteen-minute "Symphonic Metamorphoses". The first performance was by the New York Philharmonic under Artur Rodzinski in 1943. Since then it has become a favourite with audiences throughout the world. It is easy to see why. The piece, a virtuoso concerto for orchestra, is attractive and brilliantly orchestrated. The forgotten themes of Weber are truly metamorphosed into new life.

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