Lyrics/Texts and Music by Hermann Hesse and Bertold Hummel
Adagio op.62a2 (5:04); Den letzten Sommer seines Lebens... (1:09); Fantasia op. 83,1 (3:10); Fiebernd schmolz die kurze Sommernacht hinweg... (1:18); Im Nebel (3:48); Handwerksburschenpenne (3:09); Blauer Schmetterling (1:31); Nachtgefühl (2:33); Irgendwo (2:28); Manchmal (2:56); Hoch saßen sie in schwebender Schaukel überm Abgrund der Welt und Nacht... (0:45); Giocoso op 83,2 (3:11); Der letzte Tag des Juli war gekommen... (1:31); Kopflos (2:00); Antwort an Freunde, die mir ein sehr schwieriges Gedicht im neuen Stil geschickt und gefragt hatten, ob ich es etwa verstehe (2:06); Waldnacht. Gedicht eines Schwabinger Symbolisten (4:20); Bildnis eines zu alt gewordenen Literaten (2:12); Soirée (2:28); Belehrung (2:34); Verstummt war unversehens die Musik... (2:08); Sostenuto op. 83,3 (4:51)

Total time 55:26

Martin Hummel, Baritone/Narrator
Markus Bellheim, Piano

When my father died on 9 August 2002, he left behind a small song cycle titled Kopflos (Headless) as his last completed work. It had been composed for a festival in Calw, the town where Hesse was born, and was to be premiered there on 17 August 2002.

At that time I did not know that Hermann Hesse had died exactly forty years to the day before my father. This curious coincidence prompted me to again read Hesse’s novels. Various passages from Klingsor’s Last Summer touched me deeply as I believed to have discovered parallels to the last weeks of my father’s life. I was also moved by the fact that the forty-year-old Hesse so vividly foresaw death in the „burning fever month of August.“

Together with Markus Bellheim, I premiered the program recorded on the present CD on the first anniversary of my father’s death, on 9 August 2003, in Calw. In my opinion, the two piano compositions that Bertold Hummel wrote in memory of Benjamin Britten and Alban Berg join together seamlessly with Hermann Hesse’s worldly wise thoughts from Klingsor’s Last Summer, making this for me so personal document capable of fascinating a larger circle of listeners. (Martin Hummel)