Paul Hindemith is known for his intimate knowledge of each instrument's idiomatic properties, as evinced by his chamber music and especially his solo and duo sonatas for virtually every modern orchestral and chamber instrument. This same idiomatic expertise can be observed in Hindemith's Pieces (8) for solo flute. With its breathy timbre and high disposition, the flute is among the most vulnerable instruments in an unaccompanied situation. Hindemith's little pieces, with their combination of aphoristic weightlessness and technical intelligibility, are at once poignantly artless and gesturally engaging. Despite (or perhaps because of) Hindemith's highly chromatic approach to linear writing, the listener can't help but hear the composer's musical gestures through the ears and fingers of the performer. Though contrasting in mood and materials, the listener draws certain connections between the eight pieces as they are heard in succession. The somewhat languorous shifts between triplet and dotted divisions that characterize the first piece are somewhat echoed in the similarly Gemächlich (Comfortable) feel of the more active fourth piece. The tittering Scherzo of No. 2 is challenged by the slow, unmetered unfolding of the No. 3. A similar balance emerges between the crisp, leaping 6/8 gestures of No. 5 and the songlike character of No. 6. The dramatic recitative of No. 7, with its faint reminiscences of previous gestures, is answered by the nimble and calculatedly erratic Finale.

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