In this first of a three-volume survey of Schmidt's music, Harold Truscott, the outstanding authority on Schmidt in the English-speaking world and himself an important composer, examines the orchestral works - the four gripping symphonies, the Variaitons on a Hussar Song and the Chaconne - taking the reader and listener through each of these mighty scores.

This first volume is introduced by the 'Personal Recollections' of Hans Keller, who knew Schmidt well in pre-World-War-II Vienna. The book also features the first-ever translation into English of Schmidt's Autobiographical Sketch, where the composer tells of his early childhood in Hungary, his teenage years near Vienna and his life as a cellist in the Vienna Philharmonic, where he came into conflict with the autocratic Gustav Mahler. Vols. 2 (on the chamber music and music for keyboard) and 3 (music for the voice) are in preparation.