University of Connecticut Wind Ensemble - Jeffrey Renshaw, Conductor

Concert of October 5, 2000

Konzertmusik für Klavier, Blechbläser und Harfen - Paul Hindemith

Hindemith rarely, if ever, wrote about his own music. "I cannot give an analysis of my works because I don’t know how to describe a piece of music in a few words (I would rather write a new work in the time it takes). Besides that, I believe that for people with ears my things are easy to understand; consequently an analysis is unnecessary. Such a "pony" would certainly be of no help to the people without ears. I refuse to write out single themes because they invariably give a false picture."
Hindemith’s first U.S. experience was in February of 1920. He entered a new string quartet in the South Mountain Music Festival in Pittsfield, Massachusetts only to be rejected by the committee. However, his music was noticed by the festival’s sponsor Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge.
In 1930, Hindemith received two commissions originating from the United States, one from Serge Koussevitzky to write a work for the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the other from Mrs. Coolidge to compose a piece for a concert of contemporary chamber music she was sponsoring in her home city of Chicago. Concert Music for Strings and Brass was completed in December 1930 and premiered by the Boston Symphony under Koussevitzky in April 1931.
Concert Music for Piano, Two Harps, and Brass was premiered in Chicago in October, 1930 with Emma Lübbeckjob as the soloist. Mrs. Coolidge wrote to Hindemith after the concert, complimenting him on the success of the piece and apologizing for the tepid reviews in the Chicago papers. She explained that the local critics were not very good and should not be taken seriously.