Hindemith: Symphony 'Mathis der Maler'

Music-making for Hindemith included from the beginning performance and interpretation as well as the composition of music. Hindemith recalled: "As I began to compose, I had to overcome significant obstacles (my father opposed in every way what he regarded as a useless occupation), but this only made me work harder and brought me amazingly far in a relatively short period of time." The result of this development can be heard from the new CD in the series "Edition Paul Hindemith" which contains works for piano four-hands or two pianos.

Andreas Grau (b. 1965) and Götz Schumacher (b. 1966) have been a piano duo for over 15 years. Numerous prizes (among others the Prize of the German Music Council in 1989, Jeunesses Musicales 1989, the Bellini Competition 1991, and the Schubert Competition in Graz 1992) led early on to an extensive concert career both in Germany and abroad. From the beginning curiosity and openness characterized their artistic conception. CD recordings for various labels have been specially recognized by "Le Monde de la musique" and "Diapason". On WERGO there has already appeared a CD with Karlheinz Stockhausen’s "Mantra" (WER 6267-2).

This CD was awarded the „Crescendo”-Award (“excellent”).