The Konzert für Streicher of 1956, like most of the works written after Rausch’s return from the war in 1948, shows the influence of Hindemith and the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement in music which rejected the sentimentality of late Romanticism and the emotional agitation of Expressionism. This was about to change. In 1957, Rausch aligned his musical language with the influential New Viennese School of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern. He continued writing in this fashion until he left Germany in 1958. When he began composing again in 1975, he had been in the United States for 17 years. At that time, like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, his music was transformed into something beautiful, new, and wholly his own.

Rausch was a violinist, so it is not surprising this work is well-written for strings. The Konzert is concise, affable, accessible, and within the abilities of a modest string orchestra.