The German Rudi Stephan and Briton George Butterworth both died around age 30 in WWI, before either could complete the brilliant careers experts had predicted for them. At the threshold of modernity, both found their own way of musical expression: Stephan in wild expressiveness, Butterworth in rather quiet, almost otherworldly melancholy. The rising star American conductor Kazem Abdullah is General Music Director of the city of Aachen, a post that includes von Karajan and Sawallisch as predecessors. The seven-member Ensemble Aix plays Stephan’s Music for 7 String Instruments.