The only film score which survives from the scarce composed by Paul Hindemith in the twenties decade, corresponds to one of the first compositions expressly maked for an specific picture. Composed in a unselfish way, only for the pleasure to do it, this very beautiful Hindemith's score for Im Kampf mit dem Berg: In Sturm und Eis, a mountain-and-snow adventure film directed by his friend Arnold Fanck in 1920, was only heared in conjunction with the movie, and as the composer and director liked, on its premiere in Berlin in 1921. Rejected since then by the musicians and conductors of the projection halls (we must remember that on those years the music was played on live), complaining of its excessive difficulty of performance, has been necessary more than seventy years to be able to enjoy again of its terrific music. Hindemith splits his score in six acts, which correspond to the six reels who has the original version of the picture, and used a Salon Orchestra (up to 25 musicians) to its full of melodies and spectacularly visual orchestration. Too bad that the subsequent attempts from the genial german composer to work on the movies were useless (even in the United States, where he almost signed for Walt Disney Pictures); his only surviving film score shows a sound treatment which comes two decades ahead of what will become a usual language. A.L.

Members of the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester, Berlin / Conductor: Dennis Russell Davies
/ RCA/BMG CLASSICS 09026-68147-2 / 67'