Paul Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 4 Op. 36 No. 3 (Violin Concerto) for Solo Violin and Larger Chamber Orchestra
Paul Hindemith
born 16 Nov 1895 in Hanau (D),
died 28 Dec. in Frankfurt am Main
First performance
1925 in Dessau by Licco Amar
Recordings:
Peter Rybar 1951
Konstanty Kulka 1990
Kolja Blacher 1996
Frank-Peter Zimmermann 2018 (live)
Stephen Waarts 2019
The fact that one of the most original violin concertos of the period after the human disaster of the First World War, and thus one of the most radical concertos of musical expressionism,
Dadaism and surrealism, has fallen into oblivion today is probably also due to the peculiar reception history of the composer Paul Hindemith, who, probably unjustly, after a provocative beginning
became more and more of a minor figure in musical life because of his late work.
This refers to Hindemith's "Kammermusik Nr. 4 op. 36 Nr. 3 (Violin Concerto) for solo violin and larger chamber orchestra" from 1925, which belongs to a series of 6 chamber music pieces that
can be a spiritual warning of the highest order today in times of war and its disastrous consequences. Even if one approaches a musical work of art primarily through its fixed model, namely the
score, the aesthetic added value and spiritual gain arises on the one hand through creative visualisation through interpretation, but also on the other hand through the context-related conscious
listening attitude of the listeners and their listening interests.
In view of the current dangers of war, it is of interest to know what happened artistically after the First World War: back from the war, everything had to change for the artists concerned.
The Romantic understanding of art, music, the concert business, the orchestration, form and content and all artistic design were radically called into question. Chance was to rule, nothing was to
be as before, no impression of meaning or higher principles, at most as caricature or provocation. In Chamber Music 1 by Hindemith, a pop song and foxtrot replaced the symphonic final
movement; chaos and the senselessness of war also had a destabilising effect musically.
What does art and composing still mean in such a situation? A question that Hindemith, after a spontaneously provocative beginning, increasingly sought to reorder the principles of music in
his later work.
The new term for his works from the 1920s, "Kammermusik (chamber music)", deliberately refers to a small and unusually unromantic instrumentation. In Kammermusik No. 4, the symphonic violins
are omitted; only 4 violas, the low strings and the solo violin are juxtaposed with a strong wind instrumentation, which virtually invites unusual sound mixtures. Two small flutes, two
clarinets including bass clarinet, a cornet, trombone, bass tuba and two bassoons including contrabassoon (a total of 24 players) make for shocking combinations in principle, and this in a violin
concerto with solo violin. For although it is in five movements, an overarching three-part form is reminiscent of the classical concerto form Schnell - Langsam - Schnell. The third movement,
called Nachtstück (is there a conceptual reference to the night pieces in Mahler's 7th Symphony?), seems to have a special position, for Hindemith allows movements 1+2 and 4+5 to pass attacca
into one another, thereby expressly emphasising the Nachtstück for special attention.
Hindemith wrote the work for Licco Amar, the leader of the string quartet in which Hindemith played the viola from 1922 to 1929. Amar gave the premiere in Dessau in September 1925.
Listen here!
Listening companion:
Movement 1: Signal - wide, majestic half note
Woodwinds and bass tuba open an eerie march with a broad stomp, the rhythm of which is taken over shrilly by high clarinets and flutes. In the depths, a trombone trombones dissonantly and
a-rhythmically in between.
Then, "strong and free" does not appear, as one would expect, the solo violin, but a cornet, which sounds an energetic signal (cornet = trumpet-like small horn with valves, also called cornet à
piston, developed from the post horn, early also used in jazz).In contrast to the provocatively dissonant-sounding chords of the chamber orchestra, the cornet's signal remains within the usual
triadic refractions.
Suddenly there is silence in the low strings asking, was there something? A signal for what? Or against what? Clarinets join in, the eerie rhythm intensifies until trombone and finally the cornet
reappear with the bellicose signal, leading tumultuously to the next movement...
Movement 2: Very lively
...Attacca, the solo violin charges off with wild double-stop passages after a B-flat major opening chord by the orchestra, recalling Baroque formats where, after a slow introduction, the violins also begin their Allegro "very lively". The violin's attacking dissonant runs lead into a rhythmically punctuated theme rising over thirds and fourths, which is then repeated by the bass instruments in a manner similar to fugue entrances. These subcutaneously accompany the further onrush of the unleashed solo violin until, after a common crash, the orchestra stops short and leaves the cornet the space for a broad signal-like three-note motif. The violin takes over the three-note motif and dreams it on into a violinistic melody.
As at the beginning, the solo violin's storm of release opens the B section of this movement; again, the theme and motif enter in a fugue-like manner and, together with the indefatigable violin, determine the action in a development-like manner. But the energy of the beginning fades, the musical events become calmer and finally lead to an «island of uneasy calm, in which the violin provides legato musings over dark, ambiguous chords in the wood-winds» (Mark Satola).
This calm zone dies away in almost nostalgic clarinet beauty until the energetic appearance of the first theme in violin and winds puts an end to everything. Another solo by the violin, a pizzicato by the strings, a fierce beat and brief fade-out, now on D.
Movement 3: Nachtstück. Moderately fast eighth notes
After the first two movements, interpreter and listener are prepared for the heart of this chamber music, for an attempt at a new, more austere kind of contemplative music, for a night music that allows one to come to rest after all the horrors of the time. In the pianissimo of the B-flat clarinet, the echo of a quiet night mood in C appears, the violas repeat and leave the melodic lead to the solo violin, which aims at the main melody in a C-sharp tonality mediating between D and C. Only the low sounding violins continue to play the melody. Accompanied only by the low, sounding strings, this melody rises in great calm and begins a descending, touching lamento-song, as if it wanted to process grief and despair at the same time, similar to what also happened in some expressionist drawings and paintings created at the same time.
In the B section, the woodwind choir transforms the atmosphere into a kind of halting staccato cantus firmus, around which the violin weaves its meditation. A cello joins the meditation of the soaring violin. Back to the opening time measure, the bass clarinet takes over the lamento singing, and the violin circles around mourning and despair with its restless figurations. Only at the end does the violin find its way back to its inner lamento calm "a little calmer" and lets this Nachtmusik, the centrepiece of this chamber music, fade out pianissimo.
Movement 4: Lively quarters
In stark contrast to the atmosphere of the night piece that has just faded away, the cornet, again in B flat, marks a theme (in the form of a march notated in ¾ time) that could have come stylistically from Stravinsky's "L'histoire du soldat", were it not for the real war context that leads out of the fairy-tale context.Clarinets take over the march, accompanied by the the other instruments.
Only imperceptibly and after various thematic entries does the violin join in and march along. In ever more insane linear polyphony, the events escalate into chaos, which is only interrupted by a solo duet of violin and drums (as in a jazz band). A low tuba, high flutes and a muted trombone join in. The violin, carried away by the constant forward pull, increases its virtuosity.
A kind of recapitulation in the second part is again led by the cornet and drives everyone once more towards a kind of cadence. Con sordino and getting quieter and quieter, the violin and the 4 drums start a virtuoso violin solo interlude that drifts attacca ("immediately on") into the directly following last movement...
Movement 5: As fast as possible
... Without interruption and pianissimo, the violin accelerates its runs "as fast as possible" into a mad tempo. Quiet pizzicati of the low strings accompany. Two small flutes dab in pointed
notes and trills. The movement becomes the coda of this chamber music. The small flutes play lurid melodies on the highest notes to the fastest violin figurations until the violin replaces them
with hair-raising up and down runs. The cornet enters again, subdued, and the flutes play their ghostly melodies. The cornet adds to the acceleration. Finally, the score calls for everything to
be played like a waltz, getting quieter and quieter and - with the tempo already as fast as possible - adding an "if possible, even faster". The violin hurries along, the woodwinds and strings
accelerate, the cornet drives on until it is no longer possible, until it quietly disappears in D.
Thus this chamber music does not end as a pre-formed time structure but as an open event, or rather as a sequence of diverse events that are connected by chance and yet can be interpreted and
become significant for the interpreter and listener.