In a short (edited) booklet interview, Tabea Zimmermann recounts the musical choice for recording Hindemith’s original, six-movement Konzertmusik, Op 48 (1930) – the second of his three viola concertos – rather than the less unfamiliar five-movement version. There is no difference in the first three spans, originally collated as ‘Part 1’ (an almost complete piece in its own right), but of the three in ‘Part 2’, only the central Leichte bewegt survived, the outer movements excised completely and a perfunctory new Sehr lebhaft finale substituted. Was this merely, as Zimmermann surmises, because Hindemith found the work too tiring? At only 26 minutes in length this hardly seems likely for a player of his technical prowess, but for whatever reason he may have thrown the baby out with the bathwater: the original Konzertmusik is a subtler, more nuanced and better-balanced work.

Zimmermann plays it wholly convincingly, with her usual blend of formidable technique, sweetness and delicacy of tone and inner steel, finely supported by Graf and the DSO Berlin. In the standard concertos she is neck-and-neck with Power on Hyperion, the most recent of her competitors; if Power edges Der Schwanendreher, Zimmermann shades the choice for Kammermusik No 5. Both are preferable all round to Cortese, Dean, Doktor and Schmid for quality of interpretation or sound (or both), and at least a match for Walther and Kashkashian. And then there’s the small matter of Zimmermann’s eight minutes of Hindemith unheard since spring 1930: Hindemithians will not hesitate; neither should you. Let’s hope she – unlike her rivals – records the viola d’amore pieces, too.