Teldec’s two Art of Conducting videos merely hinted at the treasures still locked in the vaults of film archives and TV stations. Thanks to pioneers like VAI, we’re now able to view six in what promises to be a series of programs from the archives of the Chicago Symphony and television station WGN, the first which featured Music Director Fritz Reiner, this final one composer Paul Hindemith recorded during an April 1963 performance in Orchestra Hall.
Composers are said to be poor conductors of their own works–it’s an argument I don’t buy at all: Stravinsky and Copland performed their own music magnificently, and so does Hindemith leading his Concert Music for Strings and Brass, Op. 50. The Concert Music also provides a good introduction to Hindemith the conductor. Hindemith’s down beats are frequent and strong, starting at his shoulder and often above his head, frequently using both hands vigorously if not always precisely, swiveling his body from one side of the podium to the other. His poker face rarely changes expression, but if you watch and listen carefully, you notice that he uses his arms to articulate both beat and cues–no fancy left-handed pointing for this composer.
As for the non-Hindemith music, the Brahms Academic Festival Overture is one of the finest performances I’ve ever heard–taken at a festival tempo, Hindemith superbly articulates this sometimes awkward music, lingering movingly when necessary, and ending brilliantly. No wonder the Orchestra strings “applauded” him with their bows when he made his first entrance. As for the Bruckner movement, its two tunes are not an excuse for the amount of time the composer takes over them. Video direction in this performance gives us a few too many shots of players blowing and bowing; otherwise production sound and video are up to the standards of the rest of this series.
