Josef Schelb (1894–1977) is one of the better-kept secrets of German music. His output was substantial: he lost most of his early music in a...

Josef Schelb (1894–1977) is one of the better-kept secrets of German music. His output was substantial: he lost most of his early music in a bombing raid in 1942 but, as if to make up for lost time, wrote some 150 more works after that, in the tonally liberated, quasi-Expressionist contrapuntal tradition of Hindemith and Hartmann; Bartók was an important influence, too. The three pieces recorded here show Schelb capable of astonishing vitality in his mid- to late seventies: they display lean muscularity, freewheeling energy and luminous and transparent orchestration, often informed by bucolic nostalgia and lyrical melancholy.