Hindemith's four wind concertos (1947-9) have never enjoyed the success of the Kammermusik concertos (with which they have much in common). That for clarinet came first, to a commission from Benny Goodman. As was noted in Music Survey in 1950, it is ''a musician's rather than a showman's piece'', and the lack of overt display may have militated against its popularity. Ulrich Mehlhart's performance more than bears comparison with his rivals, including Eduard Brunner, and is served by the best sound. With the 1949 Horn Concerto, competition is concentrated in the definitive recording by composer and dedicatee (Dennis Brain), which has rarely been out of the catalogue for long. If not quite in Brain's class, Marie Luise Neunecker's is a fine, highly musical account. The declamation of Hindemith's poem in praise of the horn, inscribed over its wordless setting, is, however, an intrusive gimmick.
The two other concertos (both 1949) are rarities indeed, not, as far I know, ever before available in this country, if commercially recorded at all. In them, Hindemith most nearly approaches his 1920s manner, for instance in the woodwinds and harp Concerto with the finale's quotations from Mendelssohn's Wedding March (and perhaps fleeting allusions to Wagner's in the opening movement), occasioned by his silver anniversary. I have been critical in the past of Werner Andreas Albert's reverential approach to Hindemith; here, however, he has found the mark. In the clarinet and horn concertos, Albert's tempos are brisker than the composer's own; in all four works the soloists and Frankfurt orchestra prove committed advocates. A delightful issue.'