Walton: Variations on a theme of Hindemith

William Walton (1902-1983)

Variations on a theme of Hindemith


Theme: Andante con moto – I Vivace – II Allegramente – III Larghetto – IV Moto perpetuo –
V Andante con moto – VI Scherzando – VII Lento molto – VIII Vivacissimo – I
X Maestoso – Finale – Allegro molto


Walton and Hindemith were almost exact contemporaries - the German was the senior of the two by seven years - and enjoyed a friendship that lasted most of their careers. They first met in 1923, but the defining moment of their friendship came in 1929, when the viola player Lionel Tertis rejected the concerto that Walton had written for him. Viola soloists were a breed hard to come by. Fortunately for Walton, Hindemith was an accomplished player as well as a composer and stepped in to give the premiere of the concerto. The success of it was crucial in establishing Walton's reputation. Walton never forgot the debt he owed him.


Walton had been considering writing a set of variations on a theme from Hindemith’s Cello Concerto for some time when he was commissioned by the Philharmonic Society to compose a work for their 150th anniversary in 1963. The timing was perfect: Walton was enjoying one of his increasingly rare productive periods, and had recently completed two major orchestral works, the Partita and the Second Symphony. His music was by this time out of fashion, as was Hindemith's, and he saw the Variations not only as a thank-you to his old friend, but as a declaration of solidarity with one of the few composers alive with whom he felt a real affinity.


Walton repaid the debt just in time. Hindemith and his wife heard the premiere via a private recording that Walton sent them. He declared himself delighted: “Let us thank you for your kindness and for the wonderfully touching and artistically convincing manifestation of this kindness, “ he wrote, promising to programme it as part of his upcoming conducting engagements. The planned performances never came about; within six months Hindemith died.


The opening statement of the theme uses not just Hindemith’s melody, but much of his orchestration, with the cello line redistributed among the winds. There follow nine variations and a finale. Walton had a nagging sensation writing the work that the theme reminded him of something else: he suddenly realised its resemblance to a theme from Hindemith’s opera Mathis der Maler, from a scene centered around the German painter Matthias Grünewald’s portrait of St. Anthony. Walton duly quotes from the opera in the slow sixth variation, which forms the core of the work. The finale takes the form of an energetic, syncopated fugue in which virtuosity is to the fore - the whole piece could very easily have been styled as a concerto for orchestra - before the theme is restated very simply once more in a calm, elegiac coda.