by Ben Hogwood. Image of the composer in 1945 by Foto von der Fondation Hindemith, Blonay, courtesy of Wikipedia

On this day, 80 years ago, the premiere of a substantial work by Paul Hindemith took place in the New York City Center. When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d: A Requiem for those we love (An American Requiem) is a setting of a large poem by Walt Whitman, and was commissioned by the conductor Robert Shaw and the Robert Shaw Chorale cin the wake of the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945.

Hindemith responded with a setting for alto, baritone, choir and orchestra, and Shaw conducted the premiere. Here is a more recent recording that he made for the Telarc label in 1987, which helped promote the cause of a seldom-heard work that is in fact amongst Hindemith’s finest works:

Published post no.2,887 – Thursday 14 May 2026