Delage, a friend and student of Ravel's and a close friend of Stravinsky, is largely — and unjustifiably — forgotten as a composer these days. He wrote quite slowly, and consequently left behind a rather small output. This month's CCM is an excerpt from probably his most famous work, the Four Hindu Poems, for singer, piccolo, flute, oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, harp, and string quartet, from 1914. With its gentle arabesques and pizzicati slides, the work is extremely effective in conjuring a mystical, foreign atmosphere. Janet Baker gives a lovely performance on this celebrated recording, particularly of the wordless melisma which ends this month's excerpted movement.