![]() ![]() ![]() After Hindemith's new string quartet was enthusiastically received at one festival Strauss asked the composer in his broad Bavarian dialect: "Why do you compose atonal music? You have plenty of talent." Hindemith replied in his equally broad Frankfurt dialect: "Herr Professor, you make your music, and I'll make mine." There was a healthy creative tension between Strauss, the traditionalist, and Hindemith the prolific progressive, and both were fixtures at the Donaueschingen modern music festival in the 1920s. The pairing of Strauss and Hindemith on that LP allows me to retell two delicious stories from Geoffrey Skelton's excellent biography of Hindemith (Gollancz ISBN 0575019883 out of print). 3 and a selection of Andrzej Panufnik's music for Unicorn. The sleeve notes remind me that the great conductor Jascha Horenstein also recorded Robert Simpson's Symphony No. The Bob Auger engineered Unicorn LP plays as I write and still sounds magnificent. It was the 1973 Unicorn LP of the symphony shown in my lower photo that made me realise that record covers could be an art form the painting is The Temptation of St Anthony by Max Ernst from 1945, which is also the title of the finale of Hindemith's Symphony. Mathis der Maler (Mathis the Painter) is based on the life and ideals of the early-sixteenth century artist Matthias Grunewald. His 1934 Symphony Mathis der Maler was drawn from material from his banned opera of the same name. Hindemith was, of course, no stranger to the world of artists. As says if you like The Art of Fugue, or Bach's 48 and Shostakovich's 24 Preludes and Fugues, or Kurtág's Játékok, you should try Hindemith's 'tone games' or Ludus Tonalis. Hindemith's twenty-five 'Studies in counterpoint, tonal organisation and piano playing' were composed in 1942 and their true importance is obscured by an unjustified reputation as dry academic studies. ![]() But the sleeve above is from Hyperion's recording of Hindemith's Ludus Tonalis played by John McCabe and the illustration is adapted from a special edition of the work illustrated by the composer. Paul Hindemith is not an obvious candidate for my recent thread on musicians as artists. ![]()
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