Paul Hindemith / The Sound of Music
On this day in classical music: German composer, violist and conductor Paul Hindemith was born in Hanau in 1895. He became leader of the Frankfurt Opera Orchestra in 1917, played in the Rebner String Quartet and in 1921, founded the Amar Quartet. Beginning in 1927, Hindemith taught composition at the Berliner Hochschule für Musik. He emigrated to the United States in 1940 and for several years, taught composition at Yale University. Among his students were Lukas Foss and Norman Dello Joio. Hindemith became an American citizen in 1946 but returned to Europe in 1953 where he taught in Zurich. Hindemith’s most popular works are “Mathis der Maler,” an opera based on the painter Matthias Grunewald; and the “Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber.” While the opera “Mathis” is rarely performed, Hindemith extracted a three-movement orchestral suite that has become a staple of the orchestral repertoire. Listen to the Yale Symphony Orchestra perform the finale to the “Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes by Carl Maria von Weber.” Toshiyuki Shimada conducts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqbdDXLWHmk
On this day in the musical theatre: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The Sound of Music” opened on Broadway in 1959. Loosely based on the story of the von Trapp family singers, this was to be R&H’s last collaboration. Hammerstein died in 1960. Mary Martin portrayed the postulant Maria Rainier and Theodore Bikel Georg von Trapp. The musical ran for more than three years on Broadway and more than five years in London. It also became one of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters in 1965, an Academy Award-winning film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. The Broadway production earned eight Tony Awards and had the unusual distinction of sharing the best musical, score, book and producer awards with “Fiorello.” Listen to Bikel, Martin and children sing “Edelweiss” from the 1959 production of “The Sound of Music.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX8q0gjg-rg
