The composition was inspired by an oil painting of Wassily Kandinsky[1] and also relates to a poem by Hermann Hesse, "Bei Nacht" (At Night on the High Seas, 1911), which begins: "Nachts, wenn das Meer mich wiegt und bleicher Sternenglanz auf seinen weiten Wellen liegt" (At night, when the sea rocks me and pale glow of the stars lies on its wide waves).

In this painting concentric circles spread outwards from a darkly morbid moon, like ever widening circular ripples on a pond.

The vividly depicted circles found expression in a recurring "ground bass", underpinning a gradual crescendo in texture and intensity; the spectral dancers were alluded to in an irregular, agitato passage in 5/8.

At the climax of the piece these two elements combine; the welter of sound is abruptly broken off, however, and it is in the subdued atmosphere of the opening that the work concludes.

[12] Bei Nacht is part of a CD Skylla und Charybdis of the composer's works for piano and strings.

[13] A reviewer in Das Orchester noted that the composer created a "notturno" atmosphere by beginning with fragile threads of sound ("Klangfäden") that gradually grow to melodies.