Hindemith: Mathis der Maler (3-CD)

Composer: Paul Hindemith
Artists: Wolfgang Koch, Kurt Streit, Charles Reid, Franz Grundheber, Martin Snell, Manuela Uhl, Raymond Very, Katerina Tretyakova, Oliver Ringelhahn, Ben Connor, Magdalena Anna Hofmann, Andrew Owens, Slowakischer Philharmonischer Chor, Wiener Symphoniker
Conductor: Bertrand de Billy
Number of Discs: 3
Label: Capriccio
CD Release Date: July 17, 2021

Mathis der Maler is the central composition of Paul Hindemith’s output for music theater. The reception began with the successful premiere of a symphony of three orchestral parts from the opera in March of 1934 in Berlin. However, that was before the composer was attacked in the National-Socialist press, which prompted a defense of Furtwängler’s in a newspaper article titled “The Hindemith Case.”

The opera wasn’t premiered until May 1938, in Zurich, to which the Hindemiths had emigrated before moving on to the United States. Much like Mathis – who found his political engagement in the Peasant’s War and his calling to paint solely for the glory of God colliding with the expectation to position himself on religious matters during the Reformation – Hindemith found himself torn between his refusal to propagate for the Nazis, his urge to follow his inner voice, and the demand that he position himself against the regime.

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