# Karl Amadeus Hartmann



## KRoad (Jun 1, 2012)

Hi,

I bought a couple of Karl Amadeus Hartmann Symphony CDs (EMI Twofers) purely on speculation. I like his deeply somber and dark compositions, but I find I can only listen in moderation lest I fall completely into the blackness of the abyss.

Do others here have a similar experience I wonder?


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## Taneyev (Jan 19, 2009)

Dark, complex and difficult composer. Have 2 string quartets, and 2 sonatas and 2 suites for solo violin. Those last hard to catch, and very,very hard to play. That guy will never be best seller, and seldom played.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Made a thread on him a long time ago on this forum -
http://www.talkclassical.com/6320-karl-amadeus-hartmann.html
So far, I still only have his _Piano Sonata '24 April 1945,' _but I think its a significant work in the genre of the mid 20th century. I have yet to follow up with other works. But I have heard his famous _Concerto Funebre _as well, yes it is dark as Odnoposoff suggests. His music is kind of borderline in-between 'modern tonal' and 'atonal.'

But that piano sonata speaks to me deeply, and I admire him as a man too, for not toadying to the Nazis, which many other composers who stayed in Germany during the war years where prone to do. He withdrew from musical life until the war was over, and after the war took part in reconstrucing German (and Euorpean) musical life, he was one of the founders of _Musica Viva_, an organisation promoting playing of chamber music, which is still around today (we have a branch here in Australia, its been going for nearly as long as its European counterpart, since around the 1940's/50's).


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

KRoad said:


> Hi,
> 
> I bought a couple of Karl Amadeus Hartmann Symphony CDs (EMI Twofers) purely on speculation. I like his deeply somber and dark compositions, but I find I can only listen in moderation lest I fall completely into the blackness of the abyss.
> 
> Do others here have a similar experience I wonder?


I just had one today. I heard the Concerto Funebre and the Fourth Symphony back to back, and I was ready for some Elavil.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I've got the three-disc set with Metzmacher and the Bamberg SO. I think Hartmann's symphonies are fascinating, not least because many were overhauled - if not completely rewritten - from earlier material. I have no problem with the symphonies but there are multiple layers to peel away at not least because they seemed to be knitted together from the strands of both old and (for then) modern styles and most are tough nuts to crack due to their sombre density. I don't normally over-praise the Gramophone Guide's reviews but on this occasion I imagine they got it near enough right when summing up Hartmann's symphonies as having 'Brucknerian breadth while suggesting the influences of Reger, Berg, Stravinsky, Bartok and Blacher'. I really should get to know no. 1 better, as I'm usually quite fond of anything that sets Walt Whitman's texts.


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