The genre of the solo concerto has gained increasing importance for Peter Ruzicka since the 1990s. In his oeuvre, it represents an intermediary between the dramatic forms of music theatre and the orchestral and ensemble works. The four pieces on this CD album were composed over the space of a decade: AULODIE in 2011, STILL in 2016 (incorporated into the Chamber Symphony as its final movement in 2021), and in 2020 and 2021 the second concertos for viola and violin, respectively, and large orchestra (enlarged by a chamber choir in the Violin Concerto). DEPART and EINGEDUNKELT were written when cultural life was at a low point due to the COVID pandemic. For both works, remembering acts as an elixir of life, and in both, Paul Celan once again serves as the motive force of Ruzicka's music. In DEPART, the title and form refer to the poet "who knew like no other how to name the wounds of the twentieth century" (P. Ruzicka), while his poetry is likewise at the centre of EINGEDUNKELT.

Peter Ruzicka once again brings together top-class musicians on this CD: Nils Monkemeyer (viola), Carolin Widmann (violin), Albrecht Mayer (oboe), Kris Garfitt (trombone), the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart with the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. In addition to Ruzicka himself, the conductors are Matthias Pintscher, Bas Wiegers and Massimiliano Matesic.