CFA Announcements

Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic Performs Works By Hindemith in Cleveland's Severance Hall, May 3

For information about tickets or the concert call 412-268-2383.

Free bus transportation from Pittsburgh to Cleveland will be provided.
Reservations for the bus can be obtained via e-mail:
cleveland-trip@andrew.cmu.edu.

The concert is sponsored in part by WQED fm89.3.

The Carnegie Mellon University Philharmonic, under the direction of Juan Pablo Izquierdo, will perform the works of 20th century master Paul Hindemith at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, May 3 in Severance Hall in Cleveland.

The Philharmonic's program will include Hindemith's "Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber," "Kammermusiken Number 1," "Five Dances From der Daemon" and "Symphony Mathis der Maler." Paul Johnston, a faculty member in Carnegie Mellon's School of Music, will host a pre-concert talk at
7 p.m.

"The orchestral music of Paul Hindemith is a rich legacy of early 20th century creativity and innovation," said Marilyn Taft Thomas, interim head of the School of Music. "Yet his symphonic works are seldom included in mainstream concert programming. This unique all-Hindemith concert, along with a pre-concert talk by Paul Johnston, provides a backdrop for the considerable performance abilities of the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic and its renowned music director and conductor, Juan Pablo Izquierdo," Thomas said.

Izquierdo has conducted Chile's National and Philharmonic Orchestra and won first prize in the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Competition for Conductors in 1966. That same year, he was named assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein of the New York Philharmonic. His international appearances include conducting the Bavarian Radio and BBC orchestras, as well as other radio orchestras in Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Madrid, Glasgow, Paris and Brussels. He has conducted ensembles around the world, including the Vienna Symphony, the Holland Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony and the Israel Chamber Orchestra.

"Featuring an all-Hindemith program, the philharmonic will cover a retrospective of different periods of the work of this great master,"
Izquierdo said.

For more information on the School of Music or the College of Fine Arts, visit www.cmu.edu/cfa or contact Eric Sloss at 412-268-5765 or ecs@andrew.cmu.edu.

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About the Concert

All selections by Paul Hindemith

"Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber" (1943) Hindemith had a good working rapport with the ballet impresario Léonide Massine, and in early 1940 they discussed producing a ballet based on the music of Carl Maria von Weber. Hindemith discovered that Massine intended to use costumes and sets designed by Salvador Dali, whose work he detested, and Massine felt that Hindemith's drafts were not sufficient. They had a falling out and the ballet was dropped. Three years later Hindemith rewrote it into the "Symphonic Metamorphosis."

"Symphony Mathis der Maler" (1934)
Hindemith's opera "Mathis der Maler," or "Matthias the Painter," is a work that had personal significance to him. The opera was composed during 1933 and 1934, and is about 15th century painter Mathis Nithardt. Known as Grünewald, Nithardt painted the altarpiece for St. Anthony's Church at Isenheim, Germany, which is now in France. In the opera, Grünewald resigns from the service of the Archbishop of Mainz and puts his creative work aside in order to take an active part in the Peasants' War of 1524, but following a sequence of highly dramatic events he is persuaded that the way he can best serve mankind is through his art.