Hindemith conducts Symphonic Metamorphoses 4/4

[JoshuaAdamWeinberg]

I believe it's fair to critique the way that Hindemith conducts the Berlin Philharmoniker. Composer does not in fact equal a fantastic conductor, and vice versa. However, you cannot really go wrong with a quality recording of the Berlin Philharmoniker.

[hbkhplover]

Our band played this! It was so challenging and fun! Clarinets ftw!

[MsPandaRosa]

Final scene: a parade celebrating some ambiguous victory, and almost at once the musicians march into the so-called heroic soldiers, no-body's uniforms fit, it's starting to rain, everyone's been told something different to do... and yet it all comes together at the very end, into a crashing beauty, with sunshine and thunderheads, and a nefarious plan unknowingly thwarted...

...ah, I'm having too much fun with this.

Please, musicians, your thoughts?

[Wahl95]

I need to change my pants now.

[CarolinaGurl99]

I am going to be playing this piece for our Wind Ensemble. Our concert is inspired by German composers and songs written about Germany

[eliotgillum]

Only he can do it perfectly and it is stunning! If you're interested in getting your own copy--as I was compelled to do--I hope I can save you time by suggesting you search for "Hindemith conducts Hindemith" with the Berlin Philharmonic

[MsPandaRosa]

And so to the grand triumphancy of the finale.

I'm not good at tempo, just like having fun.

And this piece is a grand bit of fun, serious but enjoying itself all the way.

[xaelfthryth]

Thanks for uploading all 4 movements of this beautiful piece!

It's hard to find decent ones on youtube.

Hindemith hurray!

[homoioteleuton42]

2:20 One of the best double bass pizz motifs I've ever played.

[Risibly]

I like this, actually. We're playing it next year in band.

I've played Hindemith before. I know it's a trip!

[swordyboyakon]

which weber themes is each movement based on?

[jimmywhichard]

@swordyboyakon It's based on the music from Weber's "Turandot" Suite. Which was incidental music he wrote for a play.

[PerceptionsOfMe]

This is the opener to my high school's marching show this year. I really hope we can pull it off. If done right it will be pretty frickin' amazing!!

[otherjoe1234]

i love how the composer has the total right to do whatever he wants when it comes to playing his own music

[willgeek]

THis was SUCH an incredible help, i'm conducting this piece with the phoenix symphony's repertory orchestra this summer and now I know EXACTLY what tempo to take!

[Blutkasper]

meine Fresse wie scheiße sind all die zeitgenössischen Interpretationen der Metamorphosen. Und ich dachte das Stück wäre mäßig. Nein, es waren die zutiefst unmusikalischen Interpretationen. Ich bin davon überzeugt, er könnte das Stück auch langsam dirigieren, und trotzdem wäre mehr Elektrizität in der Aufführung als in der zackigsten zeitgenössischen Interpretation. Ganz krass ist das bei schwereren Stücken, etwa denen von Schönberg.

[brookie231000]

wooo i like this piece. im playing it freshman year in high school:/ challenging, but way fun

[12345blondie]

@brookie231000

same, but luckily not in a crap school orchestra lol

[hourlynewscaster]

It's amazing how sometimes we hear recordings conducted by the composer that we think are inferior or odd. The best example, I think, are some of Copeland's recordings of his own stuff. I don't like his interpretations of his own music all that much.

[ipmoic]

I like that Hindemith's own interpretation is brutal when it should be and light as a feather when it shouldn't.

Just wonderful.

[pastacooker]

Finally, a version on YouTube that isn't of an out of tune, squeaky band version.  And conducted by the composer himself! Thank you for posting!

[pindaric]

Outstanding. Lots of people play this too slow and lose much of its energy

[shellac1925]

I entirely agree with you. Furtwangler, for instance, adds an entire minute to the timing and the result is downright boring. (To be fair, he was a great Hindemith conductor. The piece just didn't suit him.)

[Capcanuk99]

@pindaric funny, I find that Hindemith himself loses some energy at the very end.

[flugel76]

Can't wait for ignorant folks to start criticizing the composer's own interpretation :P

Thanks for uploading this!

[kongming819]

this is too perfect!!! I dare anyone to say anything and not look like a fool

[bigmandrel]

@flugel76 This is a wonderfull recording, whoever is cunducting. However, I do not think it is that simple, that is, a simple matter of a composer's interpretation. Sometimes we get composers on the podium with their owm compositions and the results are spectacular, and sometimes the composers are not very experienced with the stick (baton) or are limited in their ability to effectively rehearse an orchestra and the results may suffer.

[flugel76]

@bigmandrel not in Hindemith's case.

[piliage]

@flugel76

Well...in my experience, most composers are poor conductors. I didn't say all, just most I've worked with. In full disclosure, I never played for Hindemith.

I use to believe the definitive interpretation would be the composer's, but after playing for Hans Werner Henze conducting his own work in 1989, I revised that opinion (it was a brutal run). I think Herbert Blomstedt's recording of this with San Francisco back in the 80s is better than this one. Oh, and forgive my ignorance...