Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) composed the Klaviermusik Op. 29 during a time overflowing with musical activities, which also brought long-term changes into his life. He had achieved a spectacular breakthrough as a composer in 1921 with the premieres of the one-act operas Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen, Op. 12 and Das Nusch-Nuschi, Op. 20 in Stuttgart as well as the Third String Quartet, Op. 16 in Donaueschingen. Works such as the one-act opera Sancta Susanna, Op. 21, the Kammermusik Nr. 1, Op. 24/1 and the Suite 1922, Op. 26 for piano show him to be a radical avant-gardist. He was now considered the leading German composer of his generation, a reputation that he was able to consolidate over the long term with a plethora of new works in nearly all genres, including ballet, film and entertainment music as well as parody pieces. In the Wittgenstein estate, only accessible in 2002, only one copy of unknown origin, a fair copy, but with a good number of errors, of the Klaviermusik mit Orchester has been preserved. It was obtained in the same year by the Hindemith Foundation (Switzerland) and since then has been kept at the Hindemith Institute, Frankfurt/Main. In the Hindemith estate, sketches resembling short-score for the first, third and fourth parts of the work have been preserved. With the help of these, the note-text of the copy of the work could at least be proof-read and rectified as required without any problem. Thus, 81 years after its composition, Hindemith's Klaviermusik (Klavier: linke Hand) mit Orchester, Op. 29 is finally accessible and can be made known for the first time. (Giselher Schubert, Translation: David Babcock). |
