Wow. As a rule, “pops” isn’t really my thing, but it was one more way to entertain the folks when they came to town, and they put on a good show. David Charles Abell is the current music director, but undoubtedly the orchestra will always be associated in most people’s memories with Peter Nero, who directed the ensemble for 35 years. At a point, Marvin Hamlisch had actually been signed, but he died before he could take over its leadership. My sympathy to the musicians, many of whom cobble together a living by playing in the city’s ballet and opera orchestras. This is yet another loss for Philadelphia.
Category: Daily Dispatch
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Hindemith Beyond Gebrauchsmusik
I always suspected there was more to Paul Hindemith than meets the ear. No question, he was one of the 20th century’s most influential composers, especially in the United States, where he offered a respectable alternative for young composers to the Schoenberg school of twelve-tone composition. But he sure could blanch the color out of tonality. You can have your tonal music, but don’t let it get too voluptuous!
Of course, it wasn’t always that way. There was an iconoclastic edge to a lot of his earlier works. At least they made one sit up and take notice – including the Nazis, who booted him out of Germany. Occasionally, he’d come up with something like “Mathis der Maler,” which manages to be both sober and spiritual. But seldom does he rollick, as he does in his popular “Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber.” I suppose letting down your hair doesn’t necessarily come naturally to one who doesn’t have any.
Blame it on Hindemith’s philosophical adherence to “gebrauchsmusik” – in English, “utility music” – functional music written on demand, whether the Muse happens to be “in” or not. Hindemith penned reams of it. But it’s not all like being trapped in the back seat of your parents’ car on a long trip with nothing but a gray crayon.
Clearly the man did have a sense of humor, and liked to share inside jokes with his wife, Gertrud, whom he married in 1924. There is, for example, the Concerto for Woodwinds, Harp and Orchestra, with its third-movement allusions to Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March.” The work was premiered on May 15, 1949 – the couple’s silver wedding anniversary.
Hindemith was also a talented draughtsman, whether doodling in his manuscripts or sketching a mural on an outside wall of their Swiss villa. He was especially fond of designing his own Christmas cards. Sometimes the drawings were Thurberesque, with perhaps just a touch of Gerard Hoffnung’s whimsy when approaching musical subjects. Sometimes they were executed with a little more care.
He frequently included lions in his drawings. This was not a reference to St. Jerome, but rather to Hindemith’s wife, who happened to be a Leo. I find that touching, and rather human. A good deal more so than some of his music.
Happy birthday, Paul Hindemith!
A sample of Hindemith’s drawings
https://www.hindemith.info/en/life-work/drawings/
More about his relationship with Gertrud
http://www.hindemith.info/en/life-work/biography/1918-1927/life/marriage/
Concerto for Woodwinds, Harp and Orchestra (with Mendelssohn allusions beginning around 10:49)
Classic recording of “Mathis der Maler” Symphony, conducted by William Steinberg
Hindemith in a rare swashbuckling mood, from the “Symphonic Metamorphosis”
Hindemith the iconoclast (punctuated by a siren)
One of my most hated Hindemith works – get out the gray crayons!
And one of the most touching, written in a mere six hours the day after the death of King George V, as a last-minute replacement for Hindemith’s viola concerto “Der Schwanendreher,” and played by the composer himself on a live radio broadcast over the BBC not long after completing it at 5 p.m.
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Happy 80th Birthday Daniel Barenboim
Pianist, conductor, and humanitarian Daniel Barenboim is 80 today. Only within the past weeks did Barenboim announce that he would have to scale back on his concertizing, due to health reasons (citing a “serious neurological condition”). Let’s hope the hiatus is merely temporary.
Happy birthday, Maestro. Get well soon, and many happy returns!
Barenboim at 12 (playing Scarlatti, Chopin, and Kabalevsky)
Superstar “Trout” Quintet, with Barenboim, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Jacqueline du Pré, and Zubin Mehta (on the double bass!)
Playing Mendelssohn’s “Songs without Words,” complete
With Jackie, off the cuff – and on the piano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOok22pCErM
Barenboim plays Beethoven
Barenboim conducts Bruckner
“Tristan und Isolde,” complete
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdjFBW-S3z0
Encores at Carnegie Hall, with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
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Doreen Carwithen Rediscovered?
On the centenary of her birth, is Doreen Carwithen finally ready for her close-up?
Carwithen has been lauded as the first female film composer. She was certainly the first to study in the Royal Academy of Music’s film program, instituted by J. Arthur Rank in 1946. Could she have been the first woman in the world to have made film music a career? In all, she composed scores for some 30 films, many of them shorts and documentaries, but six of them were features.
Alas, her concert works, while well-received, were not embraced with particular enthusiasm by either programmers or publishers.
Carwithen entered the Royal Academy as a cellist, who could also play violin and piano, in 1941. There, she enrolled in William Alwyn’s harmony class. Before long, he was also teaching her composition. Their mutual attraction was instantaneous, sparking a 30-year romance that culminated in their marriage in 1975.
Unfortunately, at the time of their meeting, Alwyn happened already to be married. The affair proved deleterious to everyone – Carwithen, Alwyn, and Alwyn’s wife – with stress, depression, and physical health issues all around.
When they finally did marry (after Alwyn’s doctor gave him a talking to, pointing out that he was killing everyone by not living honestly), Carwithen preferred to be recognized by her middle name. She had always disliked Doreen. Thereafter, she went by Mary.
In 1961, as her career never really seemed to get off the ground, Carwithen began acting as Alwyn’s secretary and amanuensis. Increasingly, she shifted her focus to supporting and promoting his music at the expense of her own. After all, he was by that time a symphonist of stature, while she wasn’t gaining any traction.
Following Alwyn’s death in 1985, she devoted herself purely to the preservation of his legacy. When she herself died in 2003, she left sketches for a string quartet (which would have been her third), a symphony, and a cello concerto. One can only imagine that, as a creative artist, Carwithen withered on the vine.
Now it seems her time has come. Her overture, “Bishop Rock,” was performed at this year’s BBC Proms (alongside Grace Williams’ “Sea Sketches” and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “A Sea Symphony”). On a separate concert, her Second String Quartet was also played. Another scheduled overture, “ODTAA (One Damn Thing After Another)” was not heard, as the Last Night of the Proms was cancelled because of the Queen’s death.
I expect, with the increased interest in music by composers marginalized because of race or gender, that we’ll be seeing more recordings and concerts featuring Carwithen’s works.
Here’s an interesting write-up that contains a lot of information about the composer, beyond that usually drawn from her Wikipedia page:
I’ve also been looking for an excuse to post this video of her Piano Sonatina for the last few weeks.
“ODTAA (One Damn Thing After Another),” introduced by Sir Adrian Boult and the London Philharmonic in 1947
Concerto for Piano and Strings, first performed at the Proms in 1952
“Bishop Rock”
String Quartet No. 1
“Suffolk Suite” (1964)
Carwithen wrote the score for the documentary “Elizabeth is Queen” (1953) at white heat. The film was released in theaters three days after Elizabeth’s coronation. The music under the opening credits is arranged from Walton’s “Crown Imperial.” Keep in mind, this is only reel one!
https://www.britishpathe.com/video/elizabeth-is-queen-reel-1-1
Carwithen and Alwyn were the focus of my film music show, “Picture Perfect,” this past Saturday on WWFM – The Classical Network. You can listen to the webcast by following the link below.
Happy birthday, Doreen Carwithen.
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Copland Ballets Rodeo Appalachian Spring Videos
I’m not sure that this will win any new friends to Copland’s music – the definition on the 49-year-old video tape is pretty poor – but it should still be of interest to anyone familiar with the oft-performed concert suite. Here’s the first 12 minutes of the ballet “Rodeo,” with the original Agnes DeMille choreography. DeMille herself is interviewed at the end of the segment. The ballet’s premiere in 1942 was attended by Rodgers and Hammerstein, who invited DeMille to provide the choreography for “Oklahoma!” Supposedly “Rodeo” was the first ballet to employ tap dance. I have to say, it’s great storytelling. The action fits the music like a leather work glove.
Unfortunately, the excerpt above does not contain the work’s most famous music, so here’s Copland himself to conduct the “Hoe-Down.” I guess it’s beef for dinner.
BONUS: Martha Graham and company perform “Appalachian Spring,” complete, in pristine footage!
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