Marco Mantovani

Kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler, a character created by E.T.A. Hoffmann, fully embodies the eccentric Romantic musician. The name "Kreisler", derived from the German word for "circle" (Kreis), foreshadows his tragic and inevitable fate: an all-consuming obsession with unattainable musical perfection that plunges him into a spiral of madness. No wonder Kreisler became a source of inspiration for Robert Schumann, himself a quintessentially Romantic composer who would eventually meet the same fate.

The concept of the "circle" also suggests a shared community, a club. This second meaning inspired Marco Mantovani to imagine a dialogue between composers, past and present, that are close friends of Kreisler in spirit, intertwining Schumann’s Kreisleriana with works by Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Kurtág, Holliger and Widmann.