A wonderful CD, recorded under Kurtag's supervision: the hour-long Kafka Fragments, completed in 1986, is his biggest work to date: it's a characteristic cycle of 40 tiny movements, scored for soprano voice and violin, that adds up to something far greater than the sum of its parts.
The text is a mosaic of quotations from Kafka's writings, diaries and letters. The cycle is divided into four parts, articulated by the two longest movements; they draw a huge range of expression from soprano Juliane Banse and violinist Andras Keller. Banse's nuances of vocal colouring are wonderfully subtle, while Keller can conjure up huge intensity from a single musical gesture. They show Kafka Fragments to be a quiet masterpiece of richness and emotional power.