In 1963, Bertold Hummel began working as a composition teacher at the Bavarian State Conservatoire of Music in Würzburg, where he got to know and appreciate his new colleague, Werner Berndsen. They performed together in countless oratorio performances and concerts in and around Würzburg – Berndsen as a flautist and Hummel as a cellist – right up until the 1980s. With Hummel’s support, Werner Berndsen set up a modern recording studio beneath the Great Hall of the State Conservatoire on Hofstallstraße, which Hummel made extensive use of with his composition students. With Werner Berndsen’s creative input, he composed *Yume I–IV* for solo flute and flute sounds in 1971, which he dedicated to Werner Berndsen in friendship.

Biography
I, Werner Berndsen, was born on 16 June 1920 in Leipzig. I came into contact with music at an early age. Both my parents played the piano; my mother sang in a church choir. When I started school, I became friends with Maximilian Brückner, who was a grandson of the famous flautist and flute maker Maximilian Schwedler. It was from him that I received my first lessons, and later from Carl Bartuzat, the principal flautist and teacher at the Leipzig University of Music. I passed my final examination ‘with distinction’.

In 1940, I was conscripted into the Labour Service, which was based in Wildfurt in Upper Silesia. In 1941, my military service began in Finland. Upon arrival, the first question asked was ‘Who is a musician?’ Thus, I was fortunate enough to be accepted into a military band. Our main task was to play at the funerals of fallen comrades or at concerts for the troops. We stayed with a Finnish family in the village of Pisi. There I had the time and opportunity to build a spinet out of wood with steel wire for the strings, as I could practise the flute but not play the piano. Eventually we moved to Lapland, to the village of Alkurtti. Together with a lieutenant – who was a music teacher and violinist in civilian life – a comrade who played the cello, and a Finnish pianist, we were allowed to organise a concert. As a token of appreciation, we were granted a recuperative leave in the southern Finnish town of Kuopio.

After the war ended, I was eventually taken prisoner by the Russians in 1945 and sent to a camp in Küstrin, east of Berlin. There we were forced to help with the harvest. Because I accidentally swallowed some grains of wheat whilst working, I fell ill and was fortunate enough to be released soon afterwards. At last I returned home to my parents. I applied for positions with several orchestras and opera houses and was fortunate enough to begin my proper career as a flautist in Magdeburg.

My professional career took me from the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, where I was principal flautist, to the Berlin Philharmonic. In 1948, Ferenc Fricsay recruited me to the RIAS (Radio) Symphony Orchestra Berlin in the same capacity. Thanks to recommendations from colleagues, I was even offered the post without an audition. The programme for the concert on 12 June 1949 featured the Symphonic Metamorphoses on a Theme by Carl Maria von Weber. This piece contains a very difficult solo passage for the flute. Fricsay asked me to play it for him, but stopped me straight away. From then on, I was persona grata for all time. I was even allowed to record two solo concertos by Busoni (Divertimento) and Nabokov (Concerto corale). The orchestra was often conducted by renowned conductors such as Georg Ludwig Jochum, Lorin Maazel, Paul Hindemith, Karl Böhm and others. We also recorded a concert version of Mozart’s *The Magic Flute*. In Salzburg, Fricsay’s recording can still be heard today at the Marionette Theatre.

In 1959, I was appointed to the Bavarian State Conservatoire in Würzburg. Following its reorganisation as a university of music, I was appointed professor in 1982. Over time, the number of my students had risen to 123. I was also in charge of the recording studio there. Many recordings with colleagues and live concert recordings were made there. On several occasions I also performed with the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, where, amongst other things, I was reunited with my Berlin colleagues.

In Würzburg, I met my colleague Bertold Hummel, who later became director of the university, and we developed a close friendship. Hummel wrote a composition for me entitled *Yume* (Dream Scenes) for solo flute and flute sounds (tape montage). At the National Association of the USA’s competition for new works, the 1996 edition was awarded first prize.

Werner Berndsen (2014)