Kurtag hommage a robert schumann biography

The next in Kurtág’s Op. 15 series was Hommage à R. Sch., completed in but with its roots also in ur-Op. 15 pieces of the mid-’70s. Robert Schumann’s propensity for loosely organized collections of fantasy pieces is clearly reflected in Kurtág’s later work, and this suite pays direct homage, not only in its title but also in the headings and music for most of its six movements (the instrumentation is also that of Schumann’s Märchenerzählungen [Fairy Tale Stories]).

The first movement, headed “Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler’s Curious Pirouettes,” alludes to E.T.A. Hoffmann’s fictitious character, the namesake of Schumann’s Kreisleriana cycle of keyboard miniatures, with breathless little swirls up and down in each instrument. “Eusebius: the Delimited Circle…” refers to the introverted alter ego of Schumann’s own writings, and is a short canon based on a song from Kurtág’s Kafka-Fragmente (“the delimited circle is pure”). It leads directly into the third movement, “…and agai Julie schumann!