Abstract
On the occasion of Hindemith’s opera “Cardillac,” this chamber concert presents three central works of wind chamber music of the twentieth century. Paul Hindemith’s humorous “Kleine Kammermusik, Op. 24, No. 2” (1922) is among his best-known contributions for wind ensemble. Written more than twenty years later, the “Septet for Wind Instruments” expands this sound world and at the same time reflects Hindemith’s stylistic shift since the 1930s: away from cheeky experimentation toward more traditional forms and compositional techniques. The finale, however, has a specific biographical background: over a double fugue sounds the old Bernese “Bärenmarsch,” which Hindemith came to know during his years of exile in Switzerland. A work of idealized reminiscence is Leoš Janáček’s “Suite for Wind Sextet ‘Mládí’” (“Youth”): the 70-year-old composer wrote it in 1924 while working on the opera “The Makropulos Affair,” which deals with the idea of eternal youth.