Georg Kröll

Diary for Piano

Georg Kröll (born 1934), studied composition with Frank Martin and Bernd Alois Zimmermann, piano with Else Schmitz-Gohr - herself a student of Max Reger -, he also attended courses and lectures by Pousseur, Boulez and Maderna. His 'Tagebuch' consists of a series of short piano pieces, their key notes are based on a twelve-note series from Schönberg's Suite for Piano Op. 25 and are reached via a series of permutations. 'Just as one can, with a little imagination, see pictures in cloud formations, or discern human or animal shapes in rocks weathered by the wind and the rain, so the sounds inherent in any given material trigger associations. These then crystallise into an inspiration, a structure, a form, or a chord reminiscent of Beet-hoven, a motif by Stravinsky, a clausula by Dufay, a theme by Frescobaldi - the gradual shaping of an idea. The great store of existing material inspires the imagination and a certain joy of discovery, while the external limitations of pre-existing material provide the freedom for internal creative exploration. This is how parodies, homages, paraphrases and quotes are created, shaped from blocks of sound, fragments and aphorisms.' (Georg Kröll)