Suitable Grief for a King

The occasion for Trauermusik was the death of King George V of England at 11:55 pm on January 20, 1936. Paul Hindemith had just arrived in London to perform as the soloist in Der Schwanendreher, his new Viola Concerto. When he and the conductor Adrian Boult failed to come up with “a suitable piece” to pay homage to the King as part of the planned program, Hindemith determined on the spot to produce a brand-new work. The composer later recalled that a studio was procured for him, where “from 11 to 5, I did some heavy mourning.” It reportedly took him just six hours to create this elegy in the guise of a miniature viola concerto. The following day, Trauer musik was premiered as part of the official memorial concert given by the BBC Symphony (also with Hindemith as violist).

The piece begins with a slow meditation of graceful grieving; a poignant movement follows, in which the viola introduces a less formal sorrow. A faster, passionate outburst ensues, which then yields to the soloist’s throbbing sadness as Hindemith exploits the viola’s rich, dark-grained sonority. Trauermusik concludes with a nod to the Baroque, incorporating the melody of a chorale Bach used for his cantata Herr Gott, dich loben alle wir (BWV 130).

Hindemith employs the ensemble as a stand-in for the congregation, thrice repeating the chorale while the viola—the individual voice of grief—adds its commentary.

A Prodigy’s Masterpiece

Among the many reasons that Felix Mendelssohn’s String Octet of 1825 continues to enthrall is the fact that it was a 16-yearold prodigy who mastered this complex and challenging format. The West-Eastern Divan Ensemble concludes its return to the Pierre Boulez Saal with another landmark string octet written in teenage years by one of the storied prodigies of music history. Born in 1881 into a large family in northern Romania, George Enescu was admitted to the Vienna Conservatory at the age of seven and moved to Paris in 1895 to continue his studies at the Conservatoire, where Maurice Ravel numbered among his classmates.

Although Enescu became celebrated as a uniquely Romanian cultural hero, he also had strong ties to the cosmopolitan French