Berlin: Hindemith's ‘Klaviermusik mit orchester’

Extract

Paul Wittgenstein's commissioning of concertos for piano left-hand is as enviable a legacy as any performer could wish to have, centred as it is on concertos by Korngold, Franz Schmidt (who also penned for Wittgenstein a set of Concertante Variations on a theme of Beethoven with orchestra and three piano quintets), Richard Strauss, Prokofiev, Britten (his op. 21 Diversions) and Ravel. Yet the maimed pianist's quixotic attitude to the works he received is almost as remarkable. Ravel he offended by the liberties he took with the solo part, while Prokofiev's Concerto No. 4 languished unplayed for a quarter of a century, until three years after the composer's death. Yet these cases pale into insignificance compared to the treatment meted out to the concerto that Paul Hindemith wrote for Wittgensein in 1923.