Product description Ondine is proud to announce the first-ever commercial recording of a long-lost major work by Paul Hindemith, the Klaviermusik mit Orchester op. 29 for piano left-hand and orchestra. The New York Times has called it "a fantastic work that requires tremendous technique and stamina." Hindemith wrote this concerto for the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein in 1923. Wittgenstein never performed it, and it was only upon the death of his widow, in 2002, that the piece was discovered in a farmhouse in Pennsylvania; the work received an acclaimed 2004 world premiere in Berlin, with piano legend Leon Fleisher as soloist and the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle. Christoph Eschenbach, one of today's leading conductors, here directs the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra the Philadelphia Inquirer acclaimed, "that any city would be lucky to have as its professional ensemble." This recording also features another orchestral gem, Antonn Dvork's popular Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World"). Review Hindemith wrote Klaviermusik mit Orchester in 1923 for Paul Wittgenstein, the Austrian pianist who lost his right arm during the first world war...This live recording is its first outing on disc...The outer movements are examples of his abrasive early modernism at its finest. The slow movement, meanwhile, is a wonderful mix of Bach and blues, in which the piano picks out a stark counterpoint to a succession of woodwind solos over a pizzicato walking bass. Leon Fleisher - who for many years was also unable to use his right hand due to a neurological condition - is the hard-hitting soloist, and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra is energetically conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. Its companion piece is the New World Symphony, beautifully done, if a bit low key. --Tim Ashley, The Guardian, Friday 8th May 2009