Respected as one of the most distinguished viola players of his time, Paul Hindemith devoted the earlier part of his career to performance, first as a violinist and then as a viola player in the Amar-Hindemith Quartet, while developing his powers as a composer and his distinctive theories of harmony and of the place of the composer in society. His name is particularly associated with the concept of Gebrauchsmusik, and the composer as craftsman. He was prolific in composition and wrote music in a variety of forms. Attacked by the National Socialists, he left his native Germany in 1935, taking leave from the Berlin Musikhochschule where he had served as professor of composition for some eight years. In 1940 he settled in the United States, teaching at Yale University, a position he combined after the War with a similar position at the University of Zurich. He died in his native city of Frankfurt in 1963.

– Naxos Records