Karl Amadeus HARTMANN (1905-1963)

• Concertino for Trumpet and Seven Solo Instruments

Born in Munich, Germany where he lived, studied and composed his entire life, Hartmann studied with Webern, the supreme master of clarity, and also with the finest German conductor of the last 150 years, Hermann Scherchen. He belongs to the group of the great German composers of the 20^th Century and his contemporaries include Boris Blacher, Fortner, Von Einem, Hans Werner Henze and the composer who led the revival of German music, Paul Hindemith. Arguably the greatest symphonist in the Austro-German tradition since Brahms and Mahler, Hartmann exemplified all the qualities of a great composer: his work was original; he was a marvelous craftsman; he had truly amazing technique; he was able to compose tender music of the highest quality; he was a great orchestrator; most of his music has tremendous energy, élan and the ability to evoke great excitement in the listener.

Hartmann hated Nazism, Hitler and anything that ranked of extreme socialism and communism, but did not flee Germany when World War 2 began. A deeply patriotic man, he stayed home in a country he knew was in the wrong, a country diseased by Hitler and his regime. Incensed by the atrocities of the crimes committed, he was extremely vocal in his refusal to cooperate with the regime. Hence it was inevitable that after the Nazis came to power, the performance of Hartmann’s music was disallowed in Germany, and he became an “internal exile”. After the war however, he was appointed Musikdramaturg at the Bavarian State Opera and became a key figure in the revival of music in post-war Germany. He also received many honours and was invited to become professor of music in the Berlin Conservatory and at the Hoshschule in Cologne. He declined the offers as he had a strong preference for Munich.

The elements of Hartmann’s music are diverse and range form jazz to post-Bergian expressionism and post-Hindemithian motoric toccata writing, and seem superficially to fail to cohere into an expressive unity. His symphonies are constructions with fractured, facetted surfaces and a deep vein of existential angst. The Lied for trumpet and seven solo wind instruments, the slow movement of his Concertino completed in 1933, was withdrawn and reworked some time later as the second movement of his fifth symphony, the Sinfonia Concertante (1951). The most striking feature of this short piece is the bassoon’s main theme, a near quotation of the opening of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.

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