Eötvös: Kosmos

Bela Bartók plays a major role in many works by Peter Eotvos. The love of Bartók’s music first appears in the piano piece “Kosmos”. The title refers to Bartók’s famous piano cycle “Mikrokosmos”. However, the work also bears the title “Kosmos” because Yuri Gagarin’s famous space flight was about to take place when it was written in March 1961. Eotvos was then 17 years old, and Gagarin excited the young composer’s imagination.