Halle Orchestra
Leader. Martin Milner
Conducted by Maurice Handford
Part

Hindemith's Mathis der Maler
Though by now Hindemith's Mathis der Maler is a classic of what we fondly imagine to be a ' modern' repertory, it was originally designed as a trailer for the opera of the same name. The opera, based on the life-story of Mathias Grunewald, the exotic late Renaissance painter, was to illustrate the conflict of politics and art in the life of an artist. The fact that Hindemith, in the course of his differences with the Nazi regime, was confronted with an identical dilemma, underlined the dilemma the opera aimed to portray.
Today in Colmar, Grunewald's polyptych can be seen; and the three movements of this symphony stem from three of the strangest of the panels-Concert of Angels, Peter, and the Temptation of St. Anthony. In fact the isolation of these three movements from the opera is remarkably successful in the concert hall. The orchestration is, for Hindemith, very rich in sonority and, for all his love of formality, romantic in the best traditions of the Black Forest. It is even arguable that this succinct version is more appealing because it implies rather than expands the philosophical struggle.
HOWARD HARTOG