Bertold Hummel was commissioned by an American conductors' association in the state of Oregon to write a piece in several movements. The "Symphonic Overture" is one part of it. A concise, unaccompanied seventh-note theme opens the overture. This theme dominates the entire piece. It appears 52 times, transposed, sharpened with mixtures, rhythmically broadened or shortened, mirrored, formed as a crab, intensified in sound through refined instrumentation, condensed into a cluster, and finally heightened to an apotheosis through the layering of four different forms of the theme. Bertold Hummel combines traditional polyphonic compositional technique with thematic work as it was developed in the Viennese classical period. In doing so, he finds his own individual tonal language. Several performances at the Bundesmusikfest by various orchestras prove that the overture is suitable for amateur musicians. It demands less technical virtuosity from the wind players than an alert ear and a sensitive response to the sliding tempo changes.

Hans-Walter Berg (in LP accompanying text "Treffpunkt Trier - 1. Deutsches Bundesmusikfest 1989")

On 15 November 1986, the Bavarian Music Council and Bavarian Radio organised a concert evening in Friedberg with new compositions for symphonic wind orchestra in order to enrich the contemporary literature for this orchestra, which was also on the rise in Germany. The Werneck Youth Wind Orchestra will play the supposed premiere of the first movement of the Oregon Symphony, which Hummel labelled Symphonic Overture op. 81d. This movement is performed by Hummel himself a year later during another American sojourn in Seattle/Washington and published by Schott in the same year.

Ernst Oestreicher

Works for (amateur) wind orchestra

At the end of these observations on Bertold Hummel's symphonies, it is necessary to mention his works for amateur music-making. In this area he is fully in the tradition of his teachers Genzmer and Hindemith, who also never lost touch with the practice of non-professional musicians. Naturally, the following maxim applies: the simpler the concept, the more diatonic and reduced the building blocks and sounds. The aspect of colour then recedes into the background and the compositional fracture is more strongly determined by graphic, linear structures, which appear much more conventional.
Of the symphonic works, the pieces for wind orchestra are among the simpler compositions. The "Sinfonietta" op. 39, written in 1970, and the "Musica Urbana" op. 81c, which Hummel composed in 1983 and which was launched a year later in his birthplace of Hüfingen under his direction with local players, were composed expressly for amateurs. In 1977, Hummel created the "Oregon Symphony" op. 67, which was performed for the first time on 7 April 1978 in Ashland/Oregon (USA) in the presence of the composer. Nine years later, on the occasion of his second trip to the USA, Hummel took the "Symphonic Overture" op. 81d (the extended first movement of the "Oregon Symphony") with him in his luggage and premiered it on 21 November 1987 in Seattle with the W.I.B.C. Directors Band.

Claus Kühnl (in "Die sinfonischen Werke Bertold Hummels", Tutzing, 1998)