Da capo

The meaning of "da capo" is to return to the beginning and start again. A musical process, which reaches somewhere but does not end, beginning again and again in a different way, from different basic material throughout nine stages, evolves from the starting tune. The initial tunes come from Mozart's notebooks. They are fragments, ideas for themes, which in their majority or not in the outlined form did not result in finished compositions.

Péter Eötvös presents these tunes to listeners in a clearly recognisable way but he immediately develops and transforms them. Mozart's themes are almost immediately remodelled in the chamber ensemble, the instruments of which were stillunknown in the 18th century, and the musical journey is made especially adventurous in that the solo (whether played on the cimbalom or the marimba) is presented by a musical instrument which cannot have been used in the 18th century.

The work was composed in winter 2013-2014 at the invitation of Porto's Casa da Musica, the Salzburg Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum and New World Symphony, America's Orchestral Academy (Miami). The cimbalom solo was inspired by the performance of Hungarian cimbalom player Miklós Lukács.

Instrumentation: Cimbalom or Marimba (solo),1 Fl (Picc., Afl), Ob (C. ingl), Cl, Bcl, Fg (Cfg), Cor, Tr, Trb (with Quartventil), Tuba, Perc (one player), 2 Vln, Vla, Vlc, Cb