COSMOS

The GrauSchumacher Piano Duo set out for the stars in “Cosmos”, as part of their journey through macro- and microcosms along the edges of musical constellations.

The destination and centre of their journey is Cosmos, a work for two pianos which the Hungarian composer Peter Eötvös composed at the age of 17 as a spontaneous response to Yuri Gagarin, who became the first man to fly into space in 1961. Kosmos is nothing less than a pocket history of the universe lasting roughly twelve minutes. “After the Big Bang”, Eötvös explains, “the galaxies, suns and stars slowly came into being. Cosmic shapes become increasingly complex, and space will eventually reach its maximum point of extension.

After that the universe will begin to shrink, and the shapes will dissolve in preparation for the next Big Bang.” A cycle of emergence and disappearance on a galactic scale!