Leopold Brauneiss: Kykloi

The circle – a symbol of infinity, of cyclical growth and decay – is at the heart of Leopold Brauneiss's new album. The title work Kykloi (Greek: circles) translates this motif into music: Two key circles, starting from D major, move in opposite directions, diverge, intersect, and finally reunite at the starting point – a sonorous process of convergence, distance, and return. Mathematical rigor and organic growth merge into a fascinating soundscape.

Brauneiss's interest in circular processes, cyclical structures, and the balance between simplicity and complexity is also reflected in his other works. Humorous and light-hearted, (Nearly a) Pizzicato Polka, a tongue-in-cheek play with Viennese soundscapes and charming breaks. Farewell, a personal piece about farewell, combines formal rigor with emotional depth, while the arrangement of the Purgatorio-movement from Mahler's unfinished 10th Symphony as a loving homage to one of the great masters of music history.

The Piano Trio Métamorphoses nocturnes explores musical transformation processes between day and night, while the miniatures – Bagatellen and Préludes – as pointed snapshots in which the same thing constantly appears new and surprising.

Special impressions are reflected in the elegy In Memoriam F. C. – a musical obituary for Friedrich Cerha – as well as in Callanish, inspired by the monumental stone circles of the Scottish Hebrides.

The program is rounded out by musical settings of the profound and humorous quatrains of the mystic Rūmī and the linguistically precise Seventeen Silvers of the lyricist Rudolf Kraus. In all of his works, Brauneiss remains true to his ideal: music that is like a snowflake—crystalline, clear, ephemeral, and full of delicate textures.