Hindemith

He was playing the Nocturne from Hindemith’s “Suite 1922,” a collection of five genre pieces like marches and rags, and there are a few moments in which the pianist only needs to use one hand.

In Hindemith’s libretto, the title painter has to choose whether to engage in the 16th-century’s “Peasant’s War.”

The festival will feature ensembles such as the Vienna Philharmonic and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s performing works by composers of the time, including Paul Hindemith and Kurt Weill.

And, in retrospect, this hit-or-miss Hindemith might simply have been a matter of programmatic contrast — its fearsome bombast a strange neighbor for Chopin, even when separated by a 15-minute intermission.

Still, they were supportive, and Petersen’s piano teacher exposed her, she recalled, to “everything from Bach to Hindemith.”