1945-2025: On the run
Margarethakerk, Odoorn
20 July at 20:15 hour
P. Hindemith - Clarinet quartet
B. Bartók – Divertimento for strings
Both Paul Hindemith and Béla Bartók fled from Nazi terror. In 1938, Bartók was pressured by his Viennese publisher to declare that he was not Jewish. Out of solidarity with the Jewish population, he refused. This immediately put him at risk of being arrested. He fled via Russia to the United States.
Hindemith, in 1936, was forced to sign a declaration of loyalty to Hitler. That same year, however, his works were still banned. In 1938, the situation became critical when his music was added to the growing list of so-called “Degenerate Art.” He fled to Switzerland with his wife and left for the United States two years later. Unlike Bartók, he became highly successful there.
