Elegie. Erinnerung für Orchester

“The last 13 bars that Richard Wagner wrote and played for friends at the Palazzo Vendramin on the evening before his death are a declaration of love to Cosima – in the form of a mysterious question. The ‘Elegy’ (German: ‘Elegie’) appears to be a musical self-observation that refers from afar to ‘Tristan’ and the events surrounding its composition. I have been occupied with Wagner’s piano sketch for a long time. Its openness and indefiniteness caused me to continue the thought behind it - attaining a highly personal musical approach and removal. For this, I selected the sonic potential of a string orchestra underlain by impulses and ‘shadowy sounds’ of three flutes and percussion. Wagner’s question persists. And it still seems unanswerable today…“ P.R.