Hugo Stähle was only twenty-two years old when he died of encephalitis – an immense loss for music, as this long-awaited rerelease of his Piano Quartet demonstrates. Youthful élan manifests itself in a very different way by contrast in Antonín Dvorák’s Piano Quartet.

Might Hugo Stähle have gone on to enjoy a magnificent career like the one that Antonín Dvorák would later experience? He doubtless would have had the potential to do so. And the Mozart Piano Quartet performs the meritorious service of securing this mature early talent its proper place in the gallery of important early romantic composers, with its masterful interpretation of his first work. Top class!