Born: 1895, Hanau, Germany
Died: 1963, Frankfurt, Germany

“Music is meaningless noise unless it touches a receiving mind.”

A multifaceted musician – composer, teacher, violinist/violist, and conductor – Hindemith was taught music early, touring Silesian villages with his brother and sister as the Frankfurt Children’s Trio, accompanied by their father on zither. He soon added composing to his activities, with his first publication coming out when he was 18. He became one of the leading German composers between the two World Wars, but with his rebellious modernist tendencies and love of “degenerate” music such as jazz (and having a Jewish wife), he became increasingly censored by the Nazis; in 1938 he emigrated to Switzerland. He composed prolifically in all genres, and in the U.S. he became a highly esteemed and influential teacher of composers such as Norman Dello Joio, Harold Shapero, and Lukas Foss.

Further listening:
Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber (1943)
Los Angeles Philharmonic,
Esa-Pekka Salonen (Sony Classical)
Der Schwanendreher (1935)
Brett Dean, viola
Queensland Symphony,
Werner Andreas Albert (cpo)