Marx A- Complete String Quartets. Thomas Christian Ensemble (CPO)

ONCE FAMOUS: Joseph Marx (1882-1964) was a formidable figure in Austrian music. Though largely self-taught in music — his doctorate was, literally, in philosophy — he became a professor of theory at the Vienna Academy, and later its director. He was an esteemed teacher and respected composer, especially for his art songs.

NOW FORGOTTEN: But in the age of Arnold Schoenberg and atonality, Marx represented the musical arrière-garde. Sometimes likened to the art of Gustav Klimt, his music remained tonal, decorative and sumptuously appointed. And, along with works by such contemporaries as Franz Schreker and Franz Schmidt, it has pretty much vanished from the concert hall. "He started his career in a promising and rewarding way," The New Grove Dictionary sniffs, "but ended as a composer of purely local importance."

AND YET: Marx's three string quartets, from the late 1930s and early '40s, have an almost otherworldly beauty. Luxuriating in sweetness, light and color, they are as deliciously decadent as a flaky, cream-filled Viennese pastry and, as such, are probably best enjoyed one at a time.

BOTTOM LINE: Gorgeous music, lovingly played (with that distinctively wide, mellow Viennese vibrato) and finely recorded.