Stepping up: Postcard from Munich
2022-01-12T14:00:00
Held every three years, the Hindemith International Viola Competition moved beyond its local origins to become a truly world-class event in 2021 – and a fitting tribute to its namesake, as Carlos María Solare reports
The main building of Munich’s Hochschule für Musik und Theater is an imposing sight, even before getting to the majestic flight of stairs that leads to its concert hall. It was built in the 1930s as the Nazi Party’s Munich headquarters, and although a lot of water has passed under the bridge, I concede to having paused upon being told that we were standing in the very room in which Messrs. Chamberlain and Daladier, hoping to ‘appease’ Adolf Hitler, shamefully signed away the Sudetenland to the Third Reich!