Bernhard Sekles (1872–1933) was one of the leading figures in German music in the first decades of the twentieth century, prominent as composer, educator and administrator. In 1928, as director of the Hoch Conservatorium in Frankfurt, he established the first academic programme in jazz studies, an act of courage and conviction that unleashed furious attacks from the Nazi press. His own music, banned during the Third Reich, has been virtually forgotten, although he composed in all major genres, including opera, symphony, lieder and chamber music. As the chamber works on this recording illustrate, Sekles often juxtaposes diverse elements – including Neoclassicism, Brahmsian Romanticism and jazz – in his compositions, which can be refreshingly quirky.