Anton J. Benjamin / Simrock
Schultz' 'Fantasies' refers to two other works of art – to Giorgione's painting 'La tempesta' and Schubert's lied 'Das Zügenglöcklein'. Giorgione's painting, one of the most enigmatic paintings of the Renaissance, shows a man standing upright in the foreground of the painting who looks at a woman sitting on a blanket and breastfeeding her baby. At the beginning of Schultze's piece, there is, at first, only atmosphere and sound. In the approaching thunderstorm, he then presents the themes of the man and the woman and turns them into a story. This story, set to music, is as enigmatic as the painting. The second fantasia presents a desperate individual who, looking over from afar, hears a death bell in the form of Schubert's lied. The music eventually opens up an otherworldly landscape in which the themes of the desperate individual and of Schubert's lied gradually disappear.