Symphony: Mathis der Maler

THE MATHIS DER MALER SYMPHONY is associated with the eponymous opera. It is fictional account of the life of the Renaissance painter Matthias Grünewald, who lived around 1475 – 1528. In the plot, dedicated to the artist who had an independent spirit and followed his inspiration without regard for the political situation, Hindemith discovered an opportunity to express his thoughts and began work on both the music and the libretto.

The opera consists of seven acts and was completed in 1935, but due to public climate it could not be staged in Germany and premiered in 1938 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Hindemith had a complicated relationship with the new government. He sided made no secret of his dislike to the policy being imposed. He maintained contact with his Jewish colleagues and friends, and his wife was half-Jewish. However, as a prominent artist, he initially had no serious problems, but soon they began to ban performances of his music and label it “decadent”. In this complicated situation, the composer was inspired by Grünewald’s famous paintings (there are various conjectures about the name of the artist) in the monastery of St. Anthony at the altar of the Abbey of Isenheim in Alsace.

The paintings bear the imprint of the time of the Reformation and the Peasants’ War, Grünewald himself had probably participated in it. The German Expressionist painters of the early 20th century highly valued his work and even mentioned him as their predecessor.

The symphony was composed in 1934, while work on the opera was still had not been completed, but the main scenes had been written. At that time the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler had asked Hindemith for a new work to perform at an upcoming concert tour of the Berlin Philharmonic, and Hindemith decided to compose symphonic movements, which could be included as instrumental interludes in the opera or be developed into different scenes. Thus the three-movement symphony programme was born.

Its first performance was on March, 12th  1934. The premiere was triumphant, but Furtwängler faced severe criticism from the Nazi government for its performance of the the work, especially as other Hindemith scores were condemned by the Party as “degenerate” and “associated with Jews”. He was even accused of self-plagiarism. The official opinion of the fascist press was that Paul Hindemith was culturally unacceptable and political sense.

Each of the three movements of the Mathis der Maler symphony is based on the vivid and sometimes grotesque and bizarre paintings. The opening Engelkonzert (Angelic Concert, the overture to the opera) is a scene of Mary and the infant Jesus, the angels singing. Hindemith’s music depicts the striking illumination of the paintings with the play of chiaroscuro – shimmering light chords and minor passages. Hindemith’s version of the medieval German song Es sungen drei Engel (Three Angels Sang). One can hear the sound of the angels’ wings in the flute theme and the chirping of the the birds in the violins.

The second movement Grablegung (Entombment, orchestral interlude from the second act) presents the crucified Jesus laid in the tomb. This is the last, full of suffering scene of the opera, the victory of the creator, of man. The artist, falling into creative ecstasy, manages to finish his paintings and dies. The final sections of the three-part form are a mournful procession, the middle is emotionally stirring. The third movement Versuchung des heiligen Antonius (The Temptation of St. Anthony) is symphonic picture on music from the extended climactic scene in the sixth picture of the opera, which is based on two of the pictures in Isenheim. In one of them St.Antony is attacked by grotesque demons. In them, we can recognize the life choices of the composer. The other depicts the encounter of St. Anthony with his father,  St. Paul the Hermit. The enlightened majestic finale of the movement is the 13th century song Lauda Sion Salvatorem (Praise the Savior of Zion).

The first performance of the symphony Mathis der Maler outside Germany was with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Otto Klemperer a few months later after its premiere, in October 1934.

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