Calm before the storm (op. 49, 1973)
Symphonic poem after a painting by Hans Thoma for large orchestra
Dedicated to Hans Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer
3.3.3.3 - 4.3.3.1 - timpani, percussion, harp, strings
Duration: 8 minutes
Orchestra of the University of Music Würzburg | Hermann Dechant
Title: "Stille vor dem Sturm" (1973) op. 49 Symphonic poem for large orchestra after a painting by Hans Thoma - Dedicated to Mr Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer - Length: 36 pages - Date: (1973) - Location:
Schott Music (rental material)
Bertold Hummel's tone painting - a subtly composed network of pale, horizontal sounds, with excitingly combined instrumentation and precisely developed sound eruptions. The compact haunting was attractive and quickly over.
Bertold Hummel wrote"Stille vor dem Sturm" for large orchestra in ten days during a holiday on Lake Garda in 1973. He himself described it as a "nostalgia piece" in a neo-impressionist style. A "new tonality", in which the chords no longer have a function as in classical harmony, creates a musical surface from which short outbursts occur, only to sink back again immediately.
The symphonic poem for large orchestra Stille vor dem Sturm was inspired by the painting of the same name by Hans Thoma (1839-1924). Above a sunlit cornfield, a looming wall of thunderstorms looms menacingly in the background. The tension resulting from this contrast had to be translated into music. Very calm musical areas are juxtaposed with short, violent outbursts; despite the predominant adagio character, this creates an inner excitement that lasts until the end of the ten-minute work.
Bertold Hummel
In 1973, the conductor Willi Stech (1905-1979) arranged a commission for Bertold Hummel from the legendary jazz producer Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, who commissioned compositions based on pictures by the Black Forest-born painter Hans Thoma (1839-1924). A trilogy (of three different composers) that was to be performed by the large orchestra Willi Stech came to nothing. Hummel submitted his composition "Stille vor dem Sturm" on time, but the premiere in Karlsruhe under Willi Stech could not take place due to the conductor's health. In the last years of his life, Hummel planned to compose his own Hans Thoma trilogy. He left behind fleeting sketches for the pictures of "Mondscheingeiger" (1890) and "Kinderreigen" (1884).
Martin Hummel