This disc gathers four concertante works by Karl Amadeus Hartmann, written between 1931 and 1955, with the SWR Rundfunkorchester Kaiserslautern under Paul Goodwin. They cover all of his important creative phases and complement his more unified group of eight symphonies, from the early Burleske Musik to the concertos of the 1950s.

Hartmann was born in Munich on 2 August 1905 and died there on 5 December 1963. After the war he founded the Musica Viva concerts in Munich and directed them until his death. The soloists here are Benjamin Schmid in the Concerto funebre, Yorck Kronenberg in the Burleske Musik and the piano concerto, and Elisabeth Kufferath and Florian Uhlig in the concerto for viola and piano. The recordings are productions of Südwestrundfunk, made at the SWR Studio Kaiserslautern in 2004 and 2007, with Ralf Kolbinger as Tonmeister and liner notes by Hartmut Lück.

Burleske Musik (1931), for flute, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion and piano, was premiered in the Die Juryfreien concerts, a series Hartmann had founded in Munich. In 1931 he also met the conductor Hermann Scherchen, who helped him define his art. Its four short movements are a prelude, a fast dance, a slow dance and a march. The Concerto funebre for violin and strings (1939) was first played in St. Gallen in 1940, and its revised version in Braunschweig in 1959. It opens with a Largo and closes with a chorale in the manner of a slow march. The Konzert für Klavier, Bläser und Schlagzeug (1953) was premiered at Donaueschingen by Maria Bergmann and the Südwestfunk orchestra under Hans Rosbaud. The concerto for viola and piano with winds and percussion (1954-55) is the longest work at 25 minutes, and it was first heard in Frankfurt in 1956 with the orchestra of Hessischer Rundfunk under Otto Matzerath.

Schott stresses Hartmann's departures from the classical-romantic concerto form, in which he found new and individual solutions. These works make his concertos a significant and original contribution to the development of the form in the twentieth century.

CD, Wergo WER 6714 2, released in 2009, with a 26-page booklet in German and English. Total running time 70'39".