This is one of the oddest couplings I can remember, one that stems from having these items recorded live in a single concert. It’s certainly valuable to have the first recording of a work that Hindemith wrote as long ago as 1923 but that was only discovered in 2002 and given its premiere by Leon Fleisher in 2004. It was one of the works commissioned by pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm in the First World War. Hindemith was only one of a distinguished group of composers that included Ravel and the young Britten. Wittgenstein kept hold of the copyright and prevented some of the works from ever being played.

Fleisher himself has had a unique career, for in his thirties, when he’d established a high reputation, notably in recording concertos with Georg Szell, he was attacked by a neurological disorder that prevented him from playing with his right hand for many years. It was then that the Wittgenstein repertory came in to help him, and it was only much later that he was able to resume playing with his right hand.

The Klaviermusik is a typical example of the Hindemith of the 1920s in his neoclassical style, ending with a chatteringly energetic finale – attractive enough if undemanding. The present recording offers a rather shallow piano sound, apt enough for the music, and the orchestral accompaniment is from members of the Curtis Symphony, boasting up to 100 student players, even if they hardly sound as large a band.

Dvorák’s New World Symphony gives the young players a far better chance to shine, and the cor anglais solo in the second movement is beautifully done, as is the clarinet solo in the first episode of the finale – tribute to the quality of the current students at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. As to the performance, Christoph Eschenbach, taking time off from his role as principal conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, gives a rather cautious reading. The playing is near-immaculate, but Eschenbach rarely offers phrasing that is at all memorable, and the result is very plain – just safe. As I say, a curious coupling but a valuable one.