Hindemith: Complete Piano Concertos

Paul Hindemith wrote many different works for piano with orchestral accompaniment. He intended his “Theme with Four Variations” (Die vier Temperamente) as an experimental ballet, and it was initially performed in this version in 1946 with choreography by George Balanchine. The manuscript of the version for piano and orchestra was only discovered among the belongings of the pianist Paul Wittgenstein after the death of his wife in 2001. The “Concert for Piano and Orchestra” impresses with its clever conception, while Hindemith’s “Concert Music for Piano, Brass, and Two Harps” exemplifies the constant search for different timbres in instrumentation. For this recording with Idil Biret and the Yale Symphony Orchestra, musicians were selected who symbolize important stages in Hindemith’s life: his efforts toward Turkish musical education during his stay in Ankara in 1935 and his teaching at Yale University in the 1940s and 50s.