Hindemith: Nusch-Nuschi Tänze, Sancta Susanna, Op. 21 & Symphony "Mathis der Maler"

Shortly before the pandemic struck, Marin Alsop opened a new chapter in her career, as chief conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. Following tenures at the Bournemouth, São Paulo and Baltimore symphony orchestras, the US conductor quickly realised her new ensemble had a rather different approach. “Surprisingly, the standard repertoire is not really the meat and potatoes of this orchestra,” she tells Apple Music. “It’s much more eclectic, much more far-reaching. I think this is the only place in the world where I could say, ‘I’d love to do Hindemith for my opening concert’, and they could come back with, ‘Do you want to pair that with something edgy?’ I thought, ‘Ah, OK, I have died and arrived. This is no longer Kansas.” The Hindemith works from that opening concert are heard on this album, recorded in Vienna’s beautiful and acoustically resplendent Konzerthaus. Paul Hindemith is a composer who rarely evokes great passion. But when he does, it’s with huge enthusiasm. And either way, his role in 20th-century music is very important, whether as composer, viola player or teacher, and he was a key figure in establishing musical education in Turkey and also taught in the States. “People might know him for his pedagogical work, say, at Yale,” Alsop suggests, “but not for his commitment to youth and young people and underserved communities.” It’s something that clearly strikes a chord with this most socially conscious of conductors. “I think the more information you can have about a creator, what he or she was experiencing in that moment in time, and what was the root of the inspiration for the piece, the more convincing one can become, I believe,” Alsop adds. “Our job is to be the messengers of the composer.” Read on as Alsop walks us through this album, work by work. “Nusch-Nuschi Tänze” “I was looking for something to fill up the album and my colleague, the orchestra director Christoph Becher, suggested these three dances. I thought they were perfect b