Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier.
I - Moderately fast (𝅘𝅥. = 76) - Quiet - Animato - Broad - Tempo primo: 0:00
II - Geschwindmarsch by Beethoven: Paraphrase. Rather fast (𝅗𝅥 = 112): 9:28
III - Colloquy. Quiet (𝅘𝅥𝅮 = 84) - Fast (𝅘𝅥 = 120) - Scherzando (𝅗𝅥 = 84) - Fast (𝅘𝅥 = 120) - As before: 12:52
IV - Finale. Gay (𝅗𝅥 = 76) - Quiet - Slower - Coda. Fast as before (𝅗𝅥 = 84-90): 21:30
Hindemith's "Symphonia Serena" was composed in New Haven between November and December 1946, shortly after the composer received American citizenship. It was commissioned for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which premiered it on February 1 of 1947, conducted by Antal Doráti. Afterwards Hindemith often conducted it in Europe, and it was first recorded in London on November 1956, while leading the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Like much of Hindemith's music written after World War II, the Symphonia Serena combines a new preoccupation with intensely chromatic counterpoint with a wry sense of humour, a feature largely dormant in the composer's music since his departure from Germany in the 1930s. As might be expected from a composer whose own instrumental expertise fostered a special affinity with performers, Hindemith also filled his score with a multitude of felicities that could be counted on to delight players and listeners alike: witty parody, ingenious instrumental combinations, and different simultaneous tempi.
The first movement only vaguely resembles sonata form. It opens with a solemn theme exposed by horns over celestial string figures. A pastoral, folkish second theme is then introduced by woodwinds in a delicate counterpoint. The ensuing development transforms the material in a series of episodes that highlight various sections and individual instruments of the orchestra. A wistful treatment of the second theme by solo violin, accompanied by chordal woodwinds, builds to a polytonal and contrapuntal climax at the re-entry of the first theme. There is no straight recapitulation, but a remarkable sequence in which the second theme appears on English horn and piccolo over pizzicati strings, tuned woodblocks and bass drum. The movement ends with a fugal episode that culminates in a brass-heavy peroration of the main theme.
The second movement is written in ternary form, being a paraphrase on Beethoven's military march "Yorckscher Marsch" (1808-9), scored for woodwinds and percussion. It begins with rhythmic fragments from the march, also creating a shifting chromatic background. Horns and tuba playfully anticipate the full march theme. The central trio section presents the same material in irregular chordal phrases, with woodwinds imitating the reedy drone of bagpipes. The recapitulation presents Beethoven's march theme in its entirety, with the same élan and harmonic abandon that Hindemith employed twenty-five years earlier in his orchestral jazz parody Ragtime (Well-Tempered).
The third movement has a complex structure consisting of three sections, the third section a superimposition of the first two. The sections are divided by two mirror-like cadenza sequences, each featuring a dialogue between an onstage and an offstage solo instrument. It is also scored for solo strings divided in two groups. It opens with a melodic, chorale-like theme played divisi and arco by the first string group. A cadenza for solo violin, echoed by an offstage violin, leads to the middle section, played pizzicato by the second string group. In a reversal of the previous cadenza sequence, the second cadenza features an offstage solo viola answered by its onstage colleague before the two solo violins return and usher in the final section of the movement. Here, the arco and pizzicato sections run simultaneously, providing both a striking surprise and a satisfying conclusion to this sophisticated hall of mirrors.
The fourth movement, as the first, vaguely resembles sonata form. It begins with a bold polytonal fanfare, followed by a playful main theme on clarinet, which is soon contrapuntally unravelled by the rest of the wood. A more solemn second theme is also introduced by the horns, followed by a third one in form of a menacing march on strings and percussion. Follows a largely contrapuntal development of this material, leading to a polytonal central climax. After another substantial contrapuntal section, the opening fanfare returns on muted brass, beginning complex coda that ends with a shortened version of the movement's opening bold polytonal fanfare.
Picture: "Ground Swell" (1939) by American painter Edward Hopper.
Musical analysis partially written by myself. Sources: tinyurl.com/ypbtcb6z and tinyurl.com/yv2qplx7
To check the score: tinyurl.com/ywwbbenl
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier.
I - Moderately fast (𝅘𝅥. = 76) - Quiet - Animato - Broad - Tempo primo: 0:00
II - Geschwindmarsch by Beethoven: Paraphrase. Rather fast (𝅗𝅥 = 112): 9:28
III - Colloquy. Quiet (𝅘𝅥𝅮 = 84) - Fast (𝅘𝅥 = 120) - Scherzando (𝅗𝅥 = 84) - Fast (𝅘𝅥 = 120) - As before: 12:52
IV - Finale. Gay (𝅗𝅥 = 76) - Quiet - Slower - Coda. Fast as before (𝅗𝅥 = 84-90): 21:30
Hindemith's "Symphonia Serena" was composed in New Haven between November and December 1946, shortly after the composer received American citizenship. It was commissioned for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which premiered it on February 1 of 1947, conducted by Antal Doráti. Afterwards Hindemith often conducted it in Europe, and it was first recorded in London on November 1956, while leading the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Like much of Hindemith's music written after World War II, the Symphonia Serena combines a new preoccupation with intensely chromatic counterpoint with a wry sense of humour, a feature largely dormant in the composer's music since his departure from Germany in the 1930s. As might be expected from a composer whose own instrumental expertise fostered a special affinity with performers, Hindemith also filled his score with a multitude of felicities that could be counted on to delight players and listeners alike: witty parody, ingenious instrumental combinations, and different simultaneous tempi.
The first movement only vaguely resembles sonata form. It opens with a solemn theme exposed by horns over celestial string figures. A pastoral, folkish second theme is then introduced by woodwinds in a delicate counterpoint. The ensuing development transforms the material in a series of episodes that highlight various sections and individual instruments of the orchestra. A wistful treatment of the second theme by solo violin, accompanied by chordal woodwinds, builds to a polytonal and contrapuntal climax at the re-entry of the first theme. There is no straight recapitulation, but a remarkable sequence in which the second theme appears on English horn and piccolo over pizzicati strings, tuned woodblocks and bass drum. The movement ends with a fugal episode that culminates in a brass-heavy peroration of the main theme.
The second movement is written in ternary form, being a paraphrase on Beethoven's military march "Yorckscher Marsch" (1808-9), scored for woodwinds and percussion. It begins with rhythmic fragments from the march, also creating a shifting chromatic background. Horns and tuba playfully anticipate the full march theme. The central trio section presents the same material in irregular chordal phrases, with woodwinds imitating the reedy drone of bagpipes. The recapitulation presents Beethoven's march theme in its entirety, with the same élan and harmonic abandon that Hindemith employed twenty-five years earlier in his orchestral jazz parody Ragtime (Well-Tempered).
The third movement has a complex structure consisting of three sections, the third section a superimposition of the first two. The sections are divided by two mirror-like cadenza sequences, each featuring a dialogue between an onstage and an offstage solo instrument. It is also scored for solo strings divided in two groups. It opens with a melodic, chorale-like theme played divisi and arco by the first string group. A cadenza for solo violin, echoed by an offstage violin, leads to the middle section, played pizzicato by the second string group. In a reversal of the previous cadenza sequence, the second cadenza features an offstage solo viola answered by its onstage colleague before the two solo violins return and usher in the final section of the movement. Here, the arco and pizzicato sections run simultaneously, providing both a striking surprise and a satisfying conclusion to this sophisticated hall of mirrors.
The fourth movement, as the first, vaguely resembles sonata form. It begins with a bold polytonal fanfare, followed by a playful main theme on clarinet, which is soon contrapuntally unravelled by the rest of the wood. A more solemn second theme is also introduced by the horns, followed by a third one in form of a menacing march on strings and percussion. Follows a largely contrapuntal development of this material, leading to a polytonal central climax. After another substantial contrapuntal section, the opening fanfare returns on muted brass, beginning complex coda that ends with a shortened version of the movement's opening bold polytonal fanfare.
Picture: "Ground Swell" (1939) by American painter Edward Hopper.
Musical analysis partially written by myself. Sources: tinyurl.com/ypbtcb6z and tinyurl.com/yv2qplx7
To check the score: tinyurl.com/ywwbbenl
