I Solisti & Spectra - Threnody

With the death of Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho the music world lost one of the great figureheads of her generation. Threnody -as the name suggests- is about this farewell. It originally started as a tribute to Saariaho who was also for Annelies Van Parys an important example as a leading lady composer. The piece thus inscribes itself is in a long tradition of Déplorations like the very famous “Nymphes des bois” (Déploration sur la mort d’Ockeghem) by Josquin Desprez. Van Parys used several quotes from his Déploration that on some instances in the piece is shimmering through like a distant and fragile echo of the past. While writing the piece, she got confronted with another, much closer loss, which reflects in the echo of the quote “vous avez perdu votre bon père”.
Next to Threnody of Van Parys, there is music of Saariaho, Venegas and Jacobs.

Co-production November Music
As part of Sounds Now