Paul Hindemith - Nobilissima Visione, Konzert-Suite (1938)

Paul Hindemith (16 November 1895 – 28 December 1963) was a prolific German composer, violist, violinist, teacher and conductor. In the 1920s, he became a major advocate of the Neue Sachlichkeit (new objectivity) style of music. Notable compositions include his song cycle Das Marienleben (1923), Der Schwanendreher for viola and orchestra (1935), and opera Mathis der Maler (1938). Hindemith's most popular work, both on record and in the concert hall, is likely the Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber, written in 1943.

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Nobilissima Visione, Konzert-Suite (Aug. 1938)

1. Einleitung und Rondo: Sehr Langsam ( 0:00)
2. Marsch und Pastorale: Lebhaft (7:18))
3. Passacaglia: Feierlich bewegt (15:53)

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by James DePreist

Description by Mark Satola [-]
Following his third trip to Turkey, where he helped to organize music education, Paul Hindemith traveled to Italy to discuss ballet projects with choreographer Leonid Massine. A ballet based on the Children's Crusade was considered and abandoned (music sketched for it, meantime, took new shape as the Symphonic Dances for orchestra), but a stage work based on the life of St. Francis of Assisi was fully realized as the ballet Nobilissima Visione, which was first performed in London in July, 1938. The three-movement suite derived from the score had its premiere in Venice in September that same year. Like the opera Mathis der Maler before it, Nobilissima Visione was inspired by art, in this case the famous Giotto frescoes in the church of Santa Croce in Florence depicting the life of the saint.

The concert suite, in three movements, presents its music in somewhat different order than it appears in the ballet. The Introduction and Rondo begins with a serious and thoughtful meditation for strings alone, richly harmonized in the modern, tonal idiom Hindemith had brought to fruition in Mathis der Maler. In the ballet this music accompanies Francis' meditation after receiving his calling in St. Damian's Church outside Assisi. The brief Rondo (which depicts Francis' "marriage" to the allegorical figure of Poverty) features a lilting melody on solo flute over a discreet accompaniment from strings.

In the ballet, the March and Pastoral precede Francis' commitment to the church. The young saint-to-be first pursues a career in the military, and his optimism about this seemingly glamorous pursuit is expressed in the lively march, scored for piccolo, side drum and triangle, much in the style of picturesque "janissary" or Turkish" military music of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. There is an impressive orchestral tutti on the march theme, followed by a triple-time middle section in ominous, galloping rhythm, in which the music becomes less picturesque and more vehement as Francis is disillusioned by the violence he witnesses. Over pounding drums, the trombones and tuba sound the brutal second theme before the opening march returns, once again lightly scored but now suffused with harmonic uneasiness.

Low strings sounding a despondent note lead directly to the short Pastorale, which recalls the seriousness of the Introduction. A sad, thoughtful melody is taken up by solo flute; then the oboe sounds a somewhat more hopeful note over delicate strings, bringing the movement to a gentle conclusion.

The last movement, a Passacaglia, is taken from the final scene of the ballet, wherein Francis receives the stigmata on Mount la Verna. Hindemith's solemn passacaglia theme is sounded first by unison brass, then repeated twenty-one times in varied settings of increasing contrapuntal complexity and masterful orchestration. The work concludes with a stunning peroration in which exciting trills are sounded by the full woodwind and string sections while fragments of the passacaglia theme are volleyed by fortissimo brass.