Duo, (after Ossip Mandelstam), for viola and cello, Score and parts

Although the first version of the Duo was composed in 1998, I rewrote it completely for Giedre Dirvanauskaite and Daniel Grishin who premiered it at Lockenhaus festival 2011. The sub-title, ?After Ossip Mandelstam?, refers to a short poem from his 1910 collection Kamen? (Stone), which underlies my piece: not only is this poem my epigraph, it is also quoted all along within the instrumental context. Here are a few lines from the English and German translations: Ears stretch sensitive sails, dilated eyes lose fire, over the silence swims the night-birds? soundless choir. Das Ohr - ein feingespanntes Segel, der Blick taucht fragend-leer empor, der Stille mitternächtge Vögel ziehn durch die Luft als stummer Chor. But obviously no translation can transmit the breath of this poetry, its respiration. It is exactly what I attempted to do through a musical reading that starts and ends with this breath. In the first movement, it is initiated by the Viola, which follows the 'choir', played by the Cello with a vertically positioned bow. So, the emergence, at the end of this movement, of the real sound marks the entrance into metaphorical spectrum. The second movement has a concentric form where the voiceless choir of the first movement is developed in the central section. The final movement, Adagietto, adjusts the respiration, like a regular pace - a reference to J. S. Bach. The coda, finally, goes back to the initial breath. Victor Kissine

CONTENIDO:

I Grave
II Con moto
III Adagietto