JAVS Fall 2012

P AUL H INDEMITH ’ S D ER S CHWANENDREHER : A B IOGRAPHICAL L ANDMARK

No. 5 , op. 36, no. 4; and Konzertmusik , op. 48); and a long and unusual list of chamber music works including the viola as well as two salient works for the viola d’amore. With customary diffidence, Hindemith cited his rea sons for the composition of another viola concerto as being practical—he was tiring of performing the Kammermusik No. 5 , for solo viola and large cham ber orchestra (1927), and Konzertmusik , for solo viola and large chamber orchestra (1930)—it was time for a new concerto to add to the list. In fact, Hindemith’s reasons for a third viola concerto were not quite so simple. He had thought of writing the concerto in the spring of 1935 for a concert tour of the United States planned for 1935–1936, but the tour was postponed to 1937–1938 before he had begun work on the concerto. The creation of this seminal work for the viola at this juncture in his life was certainly no coincidence. The two earlier viola concertos, Kammermusik No. 5 and Konzertmusik , op. 48, belong to his neo-baroque period from the mid-1920s and Gebrauchsmusik period in the late 1920s, whereas Der Schwanendreher belongs to his neo-classical writing of the mid 1930s. The political context surrounding the composition of this work was complex, with Hindemith hoping that the premiere of his Mathis der Maler Symphony in March 1934 would redeem his position under the Nazi regime. He had, after all, married into a Jewish family, continued to perform with Jewish musicians, and made several disparaging remarks about Hitler. From this point onward it became clear that Hindemith and his music would never really be accepted, even though the Nazis occasionally dabbled with his music over the next few years if it suited them. Hindemith seriously entertained the idea of emigrating later in 1934, and were it not for the support of friends and colleagues,

by Louise Lansdown

Der Schwanendreher listed in Hindemith’s Verzeichnis aller fertigen Kompositionen, 1913–1938 ( with kind per mission of the Hindemith Institute, Frankfurt am Main ). The appearance of Hindemith’s third and final viola concerto toward the end of 1935 was a welcome addition to an already overflowing amount of viola repertoire infiltrating his work list. Hindemith had had sixteen years practice as a viola soloist, chamber musician, and composer, unwittingly revealing the most personal and biographical of all his musical journeys through works written for his chosen instrument. The list included two sonatas for viola and piano (op. 11, no. 4; and op. 25, no. 4); three sonatas for solo viola (op. 11, no. 5; op. 25, no. 1; and op. 31, no. 4); two concertos ( Kammermusik

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