‘Who is not familiar with the abundantly tuneful composer?’ is a quotation from the review of Sterkel’s Piano Fantasy op. 45 in the German fashion magazine Journal des Luxus und der Mode dated August 1817. But today the name Franz Xaver Sterkel is little known. Julla von Landsberg and Jan Kobow thought it was time to change this and put together an enchanting selection from the composer’s rich collection of almost four hundred songs. Together with tangent piano and guitar, they bring the hidden treasures back to light and re-introduce Sterkel’s charming and deeply emotional music full of melodic inventiveness and sophistication to a wider audience.