The Rebirth of a Concertino for Trumpet Composed by Karl Amadeus Hartmann	May 18, 2002

Karl Amadeus Hartmann The the Fall of 2002 Håkan Hardenberger will perform a "new" trumpet concerto composed in 1933 by Karl Amadeus Hartmann. Hartmann was born in Munich (Germany) on August 2nd, 1905, and died in Munich December 5th 1963. He stayed and studied in Munich his entire life. In 1931 Hartmann became a private student of Hermann Scherchen (1891-1966). Scherchen, a trained viola player who was self taught in composing and conducting, was very interested in the new music of those times. His enthusiasm was shared by Hartmann. During the period of Nazism in Germany, Hartmann's music was performed only outside Germany, and during the Nazi's occupation of many countries in Europe his music was forbidden also there. Hartmann himself was a very pleasant and modest person. To estimate the importance of Hartmann's compositions, one can observe the many well-known conductors who performed Hartmann's Symphonies with the (Royal) Concertgebouworchester of Amsterdam, including Ferenc Fricsay (6th), Eugen Jochum (3rd), Ernest Bour (8th), and Ferdinand Leitner (1st) featuring soprano Sophie van Sante. Further, EMI-Classics recorded all 8 Symphonies between 1993 and 1999 with the Bamberger Symphoniker under the baton of the young and very talented conductor, Ingo Metzmacher. Hermann Scherchen Hartmann's Concertino was composed around 1933 and premiered by Professor Nikolay on August 12th 1933 during a Musical Congress in Straatsburg (Strassbourg - France), conducted by Dr. Hermann Scherchen. After the performance Hartmann took the score with him and tried to find other brass players who could be interested in his composition, but he could not find anyone with the technical skills demanded by the piece. After years of searching, Hartmann visited Amsterdam in 1956 and gave the score, written with a lead pencil, to the first trumpeter, Marinus Komst, of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Unforunately Komst did not perform as a soloist in those years; perhaps this was his reason for not giving back the score, and after some time Hartmann forgot where had had left the music. After retiring from the Orchestra, Mr. Komst gave the Hartmann score to one of his former students who also chose not to perform the piece. This trumpeter at one point was a student of Freddy Grin. Freddy Grin Grin eventually convinced his former student to surrender the score to Frau Professor Elisabeth Hartmann, who is now almost 90 years old. She was very thankful for finally seeing the music that her husband so often had told her about; saying how sorry he was about having lost the Concertino. The Concertino is scored for Solo trumpet with Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, Bassoon and Contra-Bassoon, French Horn in F, Trumpet in C and Tuba. The performance time is about 19 minutes. The three movements are entitled Toccata (Lebhaft), Lied (Langsam) and Quodlibet (Lustig and Presto). It is a technically difficult piece written in the early days of Hartmann's career. The piece is now published and available from Schott Musik International, GmbH & Co. KG, Concert Opera Media Division, Postbox 36 40, D-55026 Mainz, Germany. E-Mail com.hire@schott-musik.de Håkan Hardenberger will perform the Concertino in the Fall of 2002 in Hamburg, under the baton of Ingo Metzmacher. It is the sincere wish of Freddy Grin that trumpeters all over the world will take interest in performing this very substantial and challenging Concertino. Source: Freddy Grin

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