Seeking with the soul the land of our longing, as Goethe put it, became sorely needed in times of the second huge Covid lockdown in spring 2021. I remembered Italy daydreaming half asleep in the morning. Short miniatures arose to life like sending myself daily postcards. At the end there was a whole album of postcards. Like Schumann´s “Album for the Youth” it had a first section with youthful subjects, and a second one with more adult themes. The first part “Elba” reflects holiday memories from my youth, a dreamlike discovering of “la bella vita” in Italy. The second part concerns some memories of Rome and Lazio, some of them in Hans Werner Henze´s villa, from a time, that was musically and personally formative.
Coloured postcards for black and white keys. These pieces emerged like a notebook for an imaginary keyboard instrument somewhere between accordion, piano, organ, synthesizer or even harpsichord. They have to be adapted to the instrument and situation of the performance. In particular, pieces with only a single stave should be split between both hands when playing.