Paul Hindemith - Symphony in B-Flat

Paul Hindemith - Symphony in B-Flat (1951)
Performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Werner Andreas Albert
Movement One: Moderately fast, with vigor - 0:00
Movement Two: Andantino grazioso - 6:59
Movement Three: Fugue. Rather broad - 12:28

[@zacvee7255]

This is in Bb major by virtue of:
- first chord is B flat major
- last chord is B flat major

[@evanmisejka4062]

Neotonality baby!

[@michaelshort7472]

Performed this 48 years ago and haven't listened to it since. I appreciate it more now than I did rehearsing it endlessly (or so it seemed).

[@namethathasntbeentakenyetm3682]

I've always liked Paul Hindemith's Symphony in B Flat. There's something enchanting about it. The lyrical solos in the first movement. The surprisingly melodic atonality. The way the theme of movement one comes back at the end of the piece. Something comforting in the way that familiarity comes back right when you least expect it. I listen to it in moments when I need to keep a cool head. Like right now.
There are impossible tasks, and then there's finding a Way to Alagadda. It's been done before, so...

[@f.n.gproduction3085]

Can you show me the way to Alagadda?

[@prizemercy]

No one on Earth seems to know.

[@yagiz885]

Such a bop omg

[@steveegallo3384]

Yağız. -- yes YES!! (What means "bop"?)

[@sneddypie]

@@steveegallo3384 it emans god

[@steveegallo3384]

@@sneddypie -- But...How can you be sure??

[@sneddypie]

@@steveegallo3384 i simply am

[@steveegallo3384]

@@sneddypie -- Haha....Would that it were so! But, as you've amply demonstrated, you simply are "NOT."

[@libertariancapitalist]

Played this my senior of high school, hated the it so much and thought it made no sense, then I did some research on the piece and actually appreciated it

[@jncrook5409]

I'm playing 1st trumpet on this! THIS HELPS SO MUCH!!! Hindemith loved writing outside the box with his voicings so this really helps make sense of my role in the ensemble at different sections. Thank you!

[@westhetubaman2629]

3:28 Tuba Excerpt (1)
6:34 Tuba Excerpt (2)

[@matthewnell]

Thank you so much for the score video! So many beautiful details to notice. :) This is the kind of piece that you can listen to indefinitely and still gain something new each time.

[@donaldmickunas8552]

Brings back memories. Thanks!! 😀

[@ithebinman]

6:04 trombone excerpt

[@robpoissant295]

Playing this Symphony in B Flat with our Wind symphony this week.

[@reiayanamnam5444]

12:58 pretty significant rhythmic mistake in the first horns.

[@reiayanamnam5444]

They are a beat early for the rest of that section.

[@jazcarr]

8:59 audition piece

[@laly_shams]

1:45
8:55

[@jackminto7062]

I guess he didn't like B♭ Major

[@padraicfanning7055]

> "B♭ Major" in the title
> second measure features a concert D♭
I guess "B♭ Major" more aptly applies to Giannini's third symphony than to this symphony.

[@BetonBrutContemporary]

Well, the score says just B flat, so not necessarily need to be in Major... I wonder why the uploader entitled it 'Symphony in B flat Major'... the B flat is just a tonal centre...

[@BetonBrutContemporary]

@@jackminto7062 That is why he has selected B flat as the tonal centre, I think!

[@logancampbell7924]

@@BetonBrutContemporary The Symphony is entitled symphony in B flat major. it is written for winds and was premired by the United Sates Army Pershings Own Band. A symphony also does not necessarily have to stay in the same key as its called.

[@IICQBII]

I don't know if this is just laziness in naming the piece, or just a musical joke on hindemith's part. But all the movements end on a Bb major chord, therefore, the symphony is in "Bb major"

[@comradevalence]

2:00
2:52
4:49

[@hernanpiro]

1:49 brahms 3rd 4th movement?

[@98djmiller]

Omg I’ve always thought this

[@CatkhosruShapurrjiFurabji]

Based

[@harper6032]

4:45
6:08
9:20

[@connorskeeters8439]

2:12- 2:43, 6:05 - 6:50, 11:56 - 12:27, 13:20 - 13:46, 16:06 - 16:43

[@connorskeeters8439]

ofc not for an audition

[@connorskeeters8439]

6:13

[@waffle1012]

10:45

[@darkestlavender5650]

5:56

[@adamjohnson129]

3:50

[@someweirdmusicguy7292]

Lol, these movement titles. Sounds like hindemith....

[@gruigi3629]

1:49
5:56

[@h_waddles2281]

4:28

[@hadarf]

9:55 10:45 audition reference

[@Minty_iced_tea]

2:54

[@TheGreendaleHumanBeing]

3:49

[@adrianluna7367]

6:58

[@potentialcaroozin2385]

7:00

[@gray_castro_]

6:56

[@jenkimm]

0:59

[@gruigi3629]

16:07 16:31 16:50

[@jazcarr]

8:57

[@leohiggins5360]

Second movement mm 49 was neither fast nor gay

[@emanuel_soundtrack]

the whole piece has ideas way below his mastering of technique, that is in total opposite. But also the same technique and texture all the time, it makes a poor use of the orchestra and sounds like obsessed on same thing. "ah , i will end with a fugue and should be ok as it always is". Like " please a Wiener Schnitzel and Bier, bitte".

[@creativename7021]

?

[@stephenluttmann3432]

Well, you're not the first to make such an observation. In a published review of the score when it was still hot off the presses, the American band director Richard Franko Goldman criticized the instrumentation for being cluttered, especially in the middle range. Hindemith did occasionally risk over-orchestrating, but then, that's a common German flaw: think Schumann, or Reger (an obvious influence) -- and this is nothing compared to, say, Henze or Zimmermann. But speaking of Reger, doesn't the peroration in the finale seem oddly reminscent of the endings of Reger's variation works for orchestra?
Of course, a razor-sharp performance helps, and this one is a bit limp. Something like the old Fennell/Eastman performance for Mercury suits the music much better. As for Hindemith's own, they're oddly Brucknerian, which is . . . well, interesting, and hardly inappropriate (doesn't the third theme of the first movement sound like something a twentieth-century Bruckner would write?), but it's just not my favorite way to hear the work.

[@anangryjuicebox2799]

4:43

[@sesh4461]

3:38

[@victormargulius632]

7:00

[@hilda5821]

2:58

[@alexmusicweeks]

6:33

[@jenkimm]

6:07