Paul Hindemith - Four Temperaments; Piano Concerto (Siegfried Mauser)

Information

Composer: Paul Hindemith

• The Four Tempertaments
• Piano Concerto

Siegfried Mauser, piano

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Werner Andreas Albert, conductor

Date: 1991

Label: CPO

-----------------------------------------------------------

Description

Both works were composed during Hindemith's time in American exile. The Four Temperaments is actually a ballet, subtitled Theme and Variations for Piano and String Orchestra, and was composed for George Balanchine and his company. Balanchine, however, never performed the work, which is why Hindemith included it frequently in his concert programs during the 1950s. Similar to Carl Nielsen's Second Symphony, external emotional states are used as a musical subject. The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, composed in 1945, is a fine example of the classicism that Hindemith rediscovered in America. The final movement is particularly distinctive: a medley on a medieval dance.

However, becoming acquainted with both works makes it painfully clear once again how much Hindemith has disappeared from our concert life.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Paul Hindemith (16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963) was a German composer and theorist. Studied in Frankfurt, he gained early experience as a violinist and became a prominent composer by the late 1920s. His works range from chamber music and song cycles to operas such as Mathis der Maler. He taught in Turkey, the United States and Switzerland. Opposed to twelve-tone techniques, he sought to revitalize tonality, developing his own harmonic theory, outlined in The Craft of Musical Composition. Hindemith also promoted Gebrauchsmusik ("utility music"), viewing composers as craftsmen serving social needs

***

Siegfried Mauser (born 3 November 1954) is a German pianist. Born in Straubing, Bavaria, he studied piano under Rosl Schmid and Alfons Kontarsky. He later pursued academic studies in musicology, philosophy and art history in Munich and Salzburg. Mauser held teaching and professorial roles in Munich, Würzburg and Salzburg, where he founded an institute for musical hermeneutics. He later served in prominent leadership positions, including President of the Hochschule für Musik München and Rector of the Mozarteum Salzburg. Between 2016 and 2018, he was convicted by German courts as a multiple sex offender.

-----------------------------------------------------------