Homer places the Elysium at the end of the world, in the west, near the banks of the Ocean River (“ancestor of the gods”), as part of the afterlife, the dwelling place of the souls of the dead, where people “(…) the expected the easiest life (…) There is no rain, no snow, no storms, there is no violence”. The mystical timbre of the natural flageolet tones on the violin – on the edge of being and non-being, sound and silence – that most tender tremolo and a rustling – that’s how I hear the Elysium in the realm of sounds …
The solo violin in this piece is the absolute protagonist and at the same time the main character of the choir (and the souls … because everything already happens there, in the Elysium…). The orchestra is a chorus, but unreal, existing more in the soloist’s imagination – which only expands the world of his imagination, as if casting a shadow from which grows another flower of Asphodelus…
(Olga Rayeva)
Composers in the crosshairs of our attention