PAUL HINDEMITH (1895-1963): Klaviermusik mit orchester for Piano Left Hand and Orchestra, Op. 29, ANTONÍN DVORÁK (1841-1904): Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95.

Description: As we were just recently reminded with April's offering of the Bortkiewicz concerto for left hand, the commissioning pianist, Paul Wittgenstein, guarded his exclusive rights ruthlessly and exhaustively and, with this concerto from 1923 which he never played and apparently didn't like or understand, his wife made ever surer after his death that no one would be able to hear or to play it. A fair copy was found in 2002 in her Bucks County, PA farm-house and, comparing it with sketches and drafts from the Hindemith archive, this performing version was completed and Fleisher premiered it in Berlin with Simon Rattle in 2004. Here is its first recording. In four sections and one movement lasting 18 minutes, it is a fine example of the firebrand, young Hindemith (after all, the operas Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen, Das Nusch-Nuschi and Sancta Susanna all came from 1921 and 1922) - energetic, ostinato-driven at times, bright and sharp-edged. Leon Fleisher (piano), Curtis Symphony Orchestra; Christophe Eschenbach.