AUGUST KLUGHARDT (1847-1902): 5 Schilflieder for Piano, Oboe and Viola, ROBERT KAHN (1865-1951): Serenade in F Minor, Op. 73, CHARLES MARTIN LOEFFLER (1861-1935): 2 Rhapsodies, ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856): Märchenerzählungen, Op. 132.

Description: Loeffler's fairly well-known 21-minute pair of rhapsodies and Klughardt's 19-minute suite of five "Reed Songs" are both miniature tone-poems which, in effect, set poetry without words. Klughardt was a 27-year-old working in Weimar and under the spell of Liszt when he set poetry by Lenau about a grieving lover. This is echt-Romanticism at its most pictorial and the richly varied piano writing is right out of Liszt. Kahn's nine-minute Serenade of 1922 is warmly Brahmsian. Texts of the poems are included. All three of these works were on a 2002 Chandos disc (07E046) but that is now only available as an MP3 download. So, if you missed it, this mid-price release is doubly welcome. Ensemble Schumann (oboe, viola, piano).