The rise of fascism in in the Weimar Republic had an unexpected benefit for the United States:  an exodus of brilliant scientists and remarkable artists who left their inhospitable homeland and settled here. One such person was Paul Hindemith, born in 1895, a leading music theorist, composer, and teacher (he taught at Yale for 13 years). When young, Hindemith supported himself playing music in bars and cafés, and throughout his life he always applauded what he called “utility music,” i.e. music for practical purposes. He distanced himself from the serial composers such as Schoenberg and Berg and insisted on more traditional tonality in much of his composition.  He died in 1963.

The full name of tonight’s work is Symphonic Metamorphosis of Themes by Carl Maria von Weber; it was written in 1946. Weber, a leading composer of the Romantic era, also greatly influenced the development of German opera. And opera themes make an appearance in Hindemith’s work, particularly in the second movement. Weber had set the fairly crazy “Turandot” story to music (which became Puccini’s inspiration for an opera of the same name much later), and Hindemith plays with what passed for a Chinese folksong in Weber’s work.  The third movement is based upon piano music of Weber, while the fourth section dramatically expands Weber’s piano tunes into an appropriately grandiose march.