Four works written between 1979 and 1983 by Volker David Kirchner, each of them a portrait or an homage: to Schubert, E.T.A. Hoffmann and Debussy in the orchestral Bildnisse I, to Picasso in a grotesque for eight winds, to Schumann and Bartók in a piano trio, and to Wagner in a night piece for viola.

Kirchner (1942-2020) was born in Mainz and was a violist before he was a composer. He played in the Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt from 1966 to 1988, co-founded Ensemble 70 in Wiesbaden in 1970 and wrote incidental music for the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden from 1972. The orchestral works are played by the Hessisches Staatsorchester Wiesbaden under Siegfried Köhler, with Bodo Hersen as soloist in the Nachtstück. The Bläser Ensemble Mainz is conducted by Klaus Rainer Schöll, and the trio is the Kreisler Trio (Melitta Keller, Andrea Hess, Nina Tichman).

Bildnisse I (1981-82) is in three movements: an Idyll in homage to Schubert, a short Scherzo for Hoffmann and an Elegie for Debussy. Der blaue Harlekin (1981), subtitled "Hommage à Pablo Picasso" and "eine Groteske", is scored for flute, clarinet, two bassoons, two trumpets and two trombones. The Trio für Violine, Violoncello und Klavier (1979) is the longest work on the disc, five movements that open with a Notturno headed "Schumann in Endenich". Then come Amoretta, a brief Golem, La Malinconia (an epitaph for Béla Bartók) and a closing Chassidim.

The Nachtstück für Viola und kleines Orchester (1980-81, revised 1983) carries the subtitle "Varianten über eine Wagnersche Akkordverbindung": variations on a chord progression taken from Wagner, with the solo part given to the composer's own instrument. Taken together, the four pieces show a composer who worked openly with the music of the past, naming his models in his titles. The cover art is by Samuel Bak, and the liner notes are by Karlheinz Ludwig Funk.

CD, Wergo WER 6103 2, released in 1991. It is a reissue of the LP WER 60103, first published in 1985.