Tsvetaeva, Marina ('Novogodnee')
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Sikorski
‘Last Letter’ is based on Marina Tsvetaeva's poem “Nowogodneje”. This poem was written immediately after the death of Rainer Maria Rilke shortly before New Year 1927.
Two soloists interact as if in a dialogue between Tsvetaeva (mezzo-soprano) and Rilke (violoncello), in which Rilke is no longer dependent on words. Tsvetaeva and Rilke exchanged many letters, and with this poem - one of the greatest poems in the Russian language - their correspondence continued even after Rilke's death. Thus Tsvetaeva's passionate monologue, addressed to a dead friend, becomes a dialogue - a symbol that love and poetry transcend all physical limitations and boundaries.
Auerbach also set the same text to music in 2006 in her 2nd Symphony ‘Requiem for a Poet’.
It was commissioned by Yehuda Hanani and the ‘Close Accounters with Music’.