Phantasie

Paul Hindemith is without question, one of the 20th century's most industrious composers. One of his most famous accomplishments is that he successfully completed a sonata for every major instrument in the orchestra. Hindemith began his career as a violinist amid the turmoil of WWI, and he wrote by far more literature for the viola than any other composer in history. He had an early success becoming concertmaster of the Frankfort Opera Orchestra at the young age of 19. He later turned to viola in 1919, and it was to remain his favorite instrument for the rest of his life. Hindemith was the violist of the Amar Quartet, founded in 1921 for the premiere of the Second String Quartet. He later became known as a soloist in Europe, premiering his own viola works as well as the Milhaud Concerto No. 1 and the Walton Viola Concerto. When the Nazis expelled him from his post at the conservatory in Berlin and deprived him of his German audience due to his Jewish ties and the soprano-in-the-bathtub scene in the opera Neues vom Tage (News of the Day), which apparently shocked Hitler, Hindemith moved to Switzerland and made concert tours to the USA before emigrating there in early 1940.

Der Junge Bastian Balthasar Bux stößt in einer Buchhandlung auf ein Buch, "Die unendliche Geschichte", das ihn in eine andere Welt entführt, nach Phant sien. Dort erhält er von der kindlichen Kaiserin ein Medaillon als Zeichen der unbeschränkten Macht. "Tu was du willst" lautet die Inschrift, und Bastian deutet die Worte zuerst als "Tu was dir beliebt" und gerät damit immer tiefer in den Strudel ungezügelter, vergessen machender Phantasie. Bis er erkennt, dass das Motto auch bedeuten kann "Tu wozu es dich gerade innerlich drängt, was dein eigentlicher Wille ist".

Ein Jahr nach ihren aufregenden Abenteuern im Feenland sehnt sich September nach ihren Freunden, dem bibliophilen Lindwurm A-bis-L und dem blauen Dschinn Samstag.