It was in autumn 2013, after and when I was working on large orchestra works, that I rediscovered and heartily indulged in my penchant for small-scale instrumentation. Thus, after a number of solo pieces for various instruments, eight pieces for three clarinets followed and, in March 2013, two works for violoncello and piano – a combination I used for the first time in my music.

Like the other pieces, the Fünf Sätze are epigrammatically short, very direct in their presentation, clearly cut in form and focused in comprehensibility – the quick paintbrush, however, tying in with familiarities from older work. In youth, everything is new; with age, one tends to revolve around one’s former self, like a planet. Into my seventh decade, I assiduously tried to avoid repeating myself, even unto reusing barely similar characters. But then, becoming increasingly aware that great masters were not bothered by such scruples in the past, I, too, freed myself of them and began to accept similarities.

The crucial point lies in freshness when presenting the idea, including formal logic and coherence of development. Incidentally, I have never accepted the notion of art having an obligation to depict incoherence.

Friedrich Cerha