For all its traditional ties, Stravinsky's music continues to have a shockingly modern effect on many listeners even today. In his music, praise of God is formulated in tones entirely different from those expected by music lovers schooled in the romantic tradition. Stravinsky did not compose "emotional" or "expressive" religious music but sought objectivity, archaic prototypes, and traditions of timeless value, presenting these elements as if under microscopic enlargement.

Constantinescu stands out among the composers who followed George Enescu into the Romanian musical limelight during the first half of the 20th century. On the one hand, through his diverse oeuvre, which encompasses almost all of the genres from chamber music to film music, and on the other hand, through his own musical language, consisting of great color and harmonic variety. Skilfully adapted ecclesiastic Byzantine modes and chants, modal scales, and the authentic and fascinating melodies of Romanian folk music merge within Constantinescu's oeuvre, which stands balanced somewhere between Western tradition and a national musical idiom.

Rudolf Moser composed works across a wide range of genres for a variety of instrumentation. He was particularly interested in historical musical styles and borrowed forms and phrases, ecclesiastical compositional modes, and historical instrumentation from the past. This CD focuses on Moser's orchestral music. The compilation of works from his middle and late periods reveals a mature artist who has found his style.

Although few of Eduard Erdmann’s Lieder from the years up to 1918 were published, they occupy an important place in the public perception of the young composer. The influence on the impulsive young composer of his role models Schumann and Brahms, Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss, cannot be denied – and yet his songs also point to something new. It is to be regretted that a number of Erdmann’s early Lieder, quoted in an undated handwritten list (“12 Lieder by various authors”), have been lost or destroyed.

The music critic Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, who addressed himself in his essay “Neue Lieder” (Melos 1/1920) to the art-song repertoire of his time, observed that since Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder it had seemed almost impossible to write anything singable. There are accordingly few composers whose Lieder Stuckenschmidt recognizes as sufficiently distinctive to earn praise in his article: these are the fifteen Schoenberg songs from Stefan George’s “Buch der hängenden Gärten” (op. 15), the four Lieder op. 2 by Alban Berg, and works by Karl Horwitz, Karol Szymanowski, Manfred Gurlitt – and Eduard Erdmann.

Discovery: In 1870, Marie Jaëll takes composition lessons with César Franck and Camille Saint-Saëns at the Paris Conservatoire. Franz Liszt became her advisor and supporter. He publishes her works and plays them in concert, writing: "A man's name above her music, and she would be on all pianos".