Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis, Nobilissima visione Suite & Konzertmusik WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln & Marek Janowski

• Paul Hindemith (1895 - 1963): Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber (1944):
• 1 Symphonic Metamorphosis After Themes by Carl Maria von Weber: I. Allegro 03:36
• 2 Symphonic Metamorphosis After Themes by Carl Maria von Weber: II. Scherzo. Moderato - Lebhaft 07:35
• 3 Symphonic Metamorphosis After Themes by Carl Maria von Weber: III. Andantino 04:01
• 4 Symphonic Metamorphosis After Themes by Carl Maria von Weber: IV. Marsch 04:08
• Nobilissima Visione (suite) (1938):
• 5 Nobilissima visione Suite: I. Einleitung und Rondo 07:43
• 6 Nobilissima visione Suite: II. Marsch und Pastorale 08:00
• 7 Nobilissima visione Suite: III. Passacaglia 05:56
• Concert Music for Strings and Brass (‘’Boston Symphony’’), Op. 50 (1931):
• 8 Konzertmusik, Op. 50 "Bostoner Sinfonie": Pt. 1, Mäßig schnell, mit Kraft - Sehr breit, aber stets fließend 08:59
• 9 Konzertmusik, Op. 50 "Bostoner Sinfonie": Pt. 2, Lebhaft - Langsam - Im ersten Zeitmaß 07:48
• Total Runtime 57:46

Info for Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis, Nobilissima visione Suite & Konzertmusik

Paul Hindemith belongs to the most original and interesting composers of the 20th century. Once described by the Boston Globe as a "20th-century Brahms", Hindemith wrote music that is Modernist in its rhythmic audacity and colourful orchestration, but simultaneously inspired by Classical forms and styles.

The WDR Symphony Orchestra and conductor Marek Janowski provide a fascinating interpretation of three orchestral works that display an irrepressible, almost wild passion for music-making that is omnipresent throughout Hindemith's oeuvre. In the Concert Music for Strings and Brass (1931) - also known as "Boston Symphony" Hindemith invigorates the century-old concertato style of competing instrument groups in twentieth-century fashion by utilizing unusual ensemble combinations. He extracted the Nobilissima Visione suite (1938) from an eponymous "dance legend" on Saint Francis's vision of the three allegories of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The piece represents the violent battle in which Francis is wounded, but most of the music is serene, focusing on the noblest vision that the wounded Francis subsequently experiences.

The Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber (1944) were also conceived as a ballet, but eventually materialized as a concert piece. Hindemith based the work on a collection of melodies that Carl Maria von Weber once wrote for a theatre performance of Friedrich Schiller's Turandot. Weber's rather simple chinoiserie dating from 1809 is driven forward relentlessly by Hindemith's rhythms and jazzy harmonies. The piece epitomizes Hindemith's capacity to reconcile the old and new in a highly personal musical Language.

WDR Symphony Orchestra
Marek Janowski, conductor

Marek Janowski
has been artistic director of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2002, and was offered a lifetime position by the orchestra in 2008. In 2005, he was also appointed musical director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva. Between 1984-2000, as musical director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, he led the orchestra to international fame as the leading French orchestra. In addition, he had been artistic director of the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne (1986-1990), the Dresdner Philharmonie (2001-2003), and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo (2000-2005).

Marek Janowski receives regular invitations to guest-conduct from leading orchestras world-wide, thanks to his fresh and unusual insights into works which tend to be underestimated, or apparently over-familiar. He is in demand as guest conductor through- out the world, and works in the USA on a regular basis with the Pittsburgh Symphony (where he holds the Otto Klemperer Guest Conducting Chair), the Boston and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, and in Europe with the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchester der Tonhalle Zurich, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen and the NDR-Sinfonieorchester Hamburg.

Marek Janowski was born in Warsaw in 1939, but grew up and was educated in Germany. He has accepted positions as general music director in Aachen, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, and Dortmund. Since the late 1970’s, he has appeared regularly at all the major opera houses world-wide, including the Metropolitan Opera New York, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, San Francisco, Hamburg, Vienna and Paris. More than 50 recordings – most of which have received various international prizes – including many opera recordings and complete symphonic cycles over the past 35 years have demonstrated the special mastery of the conductor Marek Janowski. To this day, his complete recordings (1980-83) of Richard Wagner’s tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen with the Staatskapelle Dresden is consid- ered one of the most musically interesting ever to have been made of this work. Major recording projects have already been completed in Berlin, including Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem and the recording of Henze’s complete symphonies.

Booklet for Hindemith: Symphonic Metamorphosis, Nobilissima visione Suite & Konzertmusik