NEWS 2021
December 20, 2021
Schleswig-Holstein Musik-Festival Hindemith Prize 2022
The recipient of the Hindemith Prize 2022 is Hannah Kendall.
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December 17, 2021
Hindemith Prize of the City of Hanau 2022
The recipient of the Hindemith Prize 2022 is violist Antoine Tamestit.
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November 26, 2021
New Edition: Klavierlieder II
Paul Hindemith. Collected Works - Series VI: Vokal Works
Vol. VI,2: Klavierlieder II
Edited by Luitgard Schader on behalf of the Fondation Hindemith, Blonay
Mainz: Schott Music, 2021
November 25, 2021
Laurenz Lütteken new Member of the Council of the Hindemith Foundation
The Hindemith Foundation is pleased to welcome the renowned musicologist Professor Dr Laurenz Lütteken as a new member of the foundation board. Laurenz Lütteken has been full professor for Music at the University of Zurich since 2001 and therefore currently heads the same institute in which Paul Hindemith undertook a professorship specially created for the composer in 1950. The Paul Hindemith Archive also including the private library from his last domicile has been housed at the premises of the institute since 2020. The appointment of Laurenz Lütteken to the foundation board underlines the significance of musicological research which the Hindemith Foundation has counted among its core fields of work since the establishment of the Hindemith Institute Frankfurt in 1974.
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Chamber Music in the Kuhhirtenturm - annual programme 2022
Chamber music in the smallest concert hall in the world
The Hindemith Institute Frankfurt has been inviting the public to its concert series Chamber Music in the Cowherds’ Tower since 2011. The medieval tower in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen which Paul Hindemith utilised as an original type of domicile during the 1920s now houses the possibly smallest concert hall in the world. After almost two years of Corona-induced silence, it will again be possible to experience performers who take especial pleasure in performing Hindemith’s works in his former music room.
The programme performed by the Trio Idomeneo on 20 February consists of Hindemith’s brilliant String Trio op. 34 dating from 1924 and Mozart’s magnificent Divertimento in E flat major K 563. Members of the ensemble are the violinist Guillaume Faraut and the cellist Mario Riemer, both long-term members of the Frankfurt Opern- und Museumsorchester, and Megumi Kasakawa who has played the viola in the Ensemble Modern since 2010. The ensemble gave a previous recital in the Kuhhirtenturm in 2018.
The pianist Andreas Skouras can be heard in the Kuhhirtenturm on 20 March: he made previous appearances here in 2017 and 2018. This time, he has compiled a programme featuring seldom-performed piano suites by Béla Bartók, Paul Hindemith, Ernst Krenek, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Bernhard Sekles and Nikos Skalkottas.
Paul Hindemith was appointed as concertmaster of the Frankfurt Opern- und Museumsorchester in 1916 at the age of twenty. His long membership of this then and now top-class orchestra has been commemorated by the Paul Hindemith Orchesterakademie since 2015 which offers young musicians personally-tailored practical orchestral training. Sara Bellini (flute), Manuel García Simón (oboe) and Valentina Vatteroni (harp), currently members of this programme, will present works by William Alwyn, Claude Debussy, Paul Hindemith and Antonio Pasculli in a concert on 3 April.
On 8 May, the baritone Matthias Horn will give a lied recital accompanied by the pianist Christoph Ullrich. The programme includes the seldom-heard Hymnen nach Walt Whitman op. 14 by Paul Hindemith alongside lieder by Kurt Weill and Wolfgang Jacobi, a student of Paul Hindemith in Berlin.
The Duo Prism with Loïc Abdelfettah (viola) and Quentin Rebuffet (violoncello) will perform duos by Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, Paul Hindemith, Witold Lutosławski, Zikmund Schul, Noam Sheriff und Paul Wiancko on 11 September.
Kolja Lessing has enjoyed a successful career over the past decades, not only as a violinist but also as a pianist and viola player. Following professorships for violin and chamber music at the Musikhochschulen [music conservatoires] in Würzburg and Leipzig, he has held the same function at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart since 2000. On 9 October, he will be performing for the third time in the Kuhhirtenturm, on this occasion with compositions for violin solo by Johann Sebastian Bach, Paul Hindemith and Krzysztof Meyer.
The special concert marking Hindemith’s birthday on Wednesday 16 November at 11 am will be performed by Jan Ickert (Violoncello), professor for violoncello at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main since 2017. He will perform Hindemith’s Solo Sonata op. 25 No. 3 alongside his Sonata op. 11 No. 3 together with the pianist Tomoko Ichinose. A further rarity included in the programme is the Cello Sonata in F# minor op. 70 by Hindemith’s revered teacher, the Darmstadt composer Arnold Mendelssohn.
Location: Kuhhirtenturm, Große Rittergasse 118, 60594 Frankfurt am Main
Time: If not otherwise indicated, on Sundays at both 5 pm and 7:30 pm
ADMISSION FREE – Advance booking required
Reservations: already possible
Contact: Tel. 069 597 03 62 (Mon-Fri 9 am to 1 pm)
October 26, 2021
During the Hindemith Days in 2021, we aim to make up for lost ground while simultaneously presenting new features. We are pleased that we have succeeded in rescheduling almost all of the concerts planned for Hindemith's 125th anniversary year which had to be cancelled in 2020 due to the Corona pandemic and will now take place this year. There will be a number of concerts in different locations, a lecture, a discussion session and a film screening. This will be accompanied by the opening of a new exhibition in the Kuhhirtenturm. The partners involved in this cooperation project between the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt and the Hindemith Institute Frankfurt this year include the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt, the publishing house Schott Music in Mainz and the Evangelische Kirchengemeinde [Protestant church] in Frankfurt Nordwest.
Dr Ina Hartwig, Head of Cultural Affairs in the City of Frankfurt am Main is the patron of the Hindemith Days 2021.
You are cordially invited to all events. We are looking forward to seeing you!
Hindemith Days 2021 - Greetings from the Head of Cultural Affairs in the City of Frankfurt am Main, Dr Ina Hartwig
Partners
Hindemith International Viola Competition
New Recording: Wind Sonatas by Paul Hindemith
Hindemith's cycle of sonatas begun in 1935 was continued by the sonatas for wind instruments featured on this recording, each work displaying a tonal individuality perfectly tailored to the relevant instrument. It is precisely this individuality which is immaculately presented in the performances of the sonatas by the superlative soloists of Les Vents Français. The pianist Eric Le Sage, accompanist in all five sonatas, plays a prominent role in these performances, creating highly-nuanced tonal colouring and an abundance of dynamic shading against which his partners display sensitivity and communicative pleasure in these dialogues. A genuinely exemplary recording!
Paul Hindemith
Sonata for Flute and Piano (1936)
Sonata for Oboe and Piano (1938)
Sonata for Clarinet in B and Piano (1939)
Sonata for Bassoon and Piano (1938)
Sonata for Alto Horn (Tenor Horn) and Piano (1943)
Les Vents Français:
Emmanuel Pahud (Flute) - François Leleux (Oboe) - Paul Meyer (Clarinet) - Radovan Vlatković (Tenor Horn) - Gilbert Audin (Bassoon)
Éric Le Sage (Piano)
Warner Classics 0190295044411 (2021)
New Edition: Die Harmonie der Welt. Opera in five Acts (1956/57)
The publication of Hindemith’s opera in five acts Die Harmonie der Welt has begun with the current volume I,10A in the Hindemith Collected Edition. This is the first time that this masterful stage work composed in the 1950s has ever been published in printed form.
Volume I,10 Part A contains the score of Act I accompanied by an Introduction, a reproduction of the final valid version of the libretto, letters written by Hindemith on the production of his opera revealing his artistic intentions, indications of possible cuts and abridgements and his interviews concerning the opera.
Volume I,10 Part B will present the scores of Acts II and III accompanied by libretto sketches and the early version of the libretto. Volume I,10 Part C will contain the scores of Acts IV and V in addition to the Critical Commentary.
Paul Hindemith: Die Harmonie der Welt. Opera in five acts (1956/57)
Edited by Giselher Schubert on behalf of the Fondation Hindemith, Blonay
Hindemith Complete Edition, Vol I,10-A
Schott: Mainz etc., 2021
Recent Acquisitions by the Fondation Hindemith
Hindemith’s autograph of the Sonata for double bass and piano and a letter bearing an original signature written to the composer’s friend Rudolf W. Heinisch in 1933 have been purchased by the Fondation Hindemith in an auction held by the renowned manuscript trader and auctioneer J. A. Stargardt in Berlin.
The Sonata for double bass is one of a series of duo sonatas with piano accompaniment commencing with the Violin Sonata in E major (1935) and culminating in the Sonata for bass tuba (1955). The double bass sonata was composed as the penultimate work of this series in only five days during August 1949 in Taos, New Mexico, during an extended vacation tour undertaken by the Hindemiths in the USA. Hindemith created a dynamically highly subtle piano accompaniment primarily scored in a higher range to set off the sonorous bass timbre of the solo instrument. The individual parts of the sonata are structured in relatively independent smaller sections which are not so much motivically and thematically processed, but more strung together in a sequence of variation elements without however neglecting the ‘sub-cutaneous’ motivic relationships between the themes. Paul Hindemith presented the manuscript in 1956 as a gift to his long-time friend Egon Seefehlner who among other posts was the executive secretary of the Konzerthaus in Vienna from 1946 to 1962. The sonata had been premiered in the same location in April 1950, performed by Otto Rühm, a double bass player in the Vienna Philharmonic, and his son Gerhard.
The unjustly neglected painter, graphic artist and set designer Rudolf W. Heinisch had been friends with Paul Hindemith since 1921 and produced numerous portraits of the composer. One of these paintings formed the subject of a letter peppered with cheeky quips which Paul Hindemith sent to the artist from Grisons, most probably in 1933. He writes for example: “As a great admirer of your art – I am especially taken by your large-scale oil paintings Die Nachtwache [The Night Watch] and Selbstbildnis in Öl [Self-portrait in Oil] which, although I have not yet had the honour of viewing personally, have impressed me so profoundly due to their surface area and consequent large consumption of oil alone (which has utterly convinced me as a technician over and above their artistic value) – I should like to request you to send me your […] autograph alongside several of your life maxims.”
New Recordings
Hindemith’s composition Mainzer Umzug [Mainz Carnival procession] has now been recorded for the very first time by the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Mainz under the direction of Hermann Bäumer.
A new captivating complete recording of all seven of Hindemith’s Kammermusiken conducted by Christoph Eschenbach
Andreas Skouras, pianist from Munich, has produced an exceptional recording featuring piano music by Paul Hindemith
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Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival: Hindemith Prize 2021
The recipient of the Hindemith Prize 2021 is Mithatcan Öcal. The 28-year-old composer convinced the jury through his exceptional musical depth and maturity: »Mithatcan Öcal displays a remarkable tonal multidimensionality. He moves his audiences in a direct manner through his finely nuanced instrumentation, harmonic structure and unique musical expressivity« was the verdict of Dr Christian Kuhnt, artistic director of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.
Öcal underlines the relevance of such a highly endowed honour: “»The composition of contemporary music requires extensive research and creativity. Awards such as the Hindemith Prize underpin the fulfilment of this activity as they secure a basis for living. I am overjoyed to receive this distinction and also to be mentioned in the same sentence as Paul Hindemith. Personally speaking, I would however wish to live in a world in which it is not necessary to give awards in order to make possible this form of intensive creative work.«
Öcal was born in Iskenderun in the south of Turkey in 1992 and studied violin and composition in Izmit and Istanbul. He has received commissions to compose works for ensembles such as the Klangforum Heidelberg, the Collegium Novum Zürich, the Prime Recorder Ensemble and the Namascae Lemanic Modern Ensemble. His compositions have been performed at international festivals including the Gaudeamus Muziekweek (2012), the ISCM World Music Days (2014) and the Festival Archipel (2015). Öcal is a founding member of the Istanbul Composers’ Collective and lives and works in the same city.
Further Information